


Small Town Murders

by thequeenxofhearts



Series: Fred and Daphne Detective Series [1]
Category: Scooby Apocalypse (Comics), Scooby Doo - All Media Types
Genre: Detectives, F/M, Fraphne, Fred and Daphne, Murder, O/C characters - Freeform, Scooby Apocalypse universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 05:40:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 23,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29238459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thequeenxofhearts/pseuds/thequeenxofhearts
Summary: Daphne Blake and Fred Jones - New York City Detectives - are sent to the small town of Sandpoint, Idaho to investigate a series of murders that have been going on for a year, whilst also trying to solve a 30-year-old unsolved murder. Is it the same killer? Or a copycat?Mature rating for some of the scenes.
Relationships: Daphne Blake/Fred Jones
Series: Fred and Daphne Detective Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2146974
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: So here I go with another story! There are some things you need to know first, this is basically the Scooby Apocalypse universe (probably my favourite Scooby-Doo universe), but without the nanite plague, and this story is base on Fred and Daphne, who are detectives, not reporters.
> 
> WARNINGS: This story contains violence and foul language. It's a twisted storyline and it's super creepy. I don't know how I came up with the idea for this story but here it is!
> 
> I am planning to make this story the beginning of a 3-4 part series, each story with Fred and Daphne solving different cases (probably all murders and all with a gruesome storyline), but I have yet to begin planning those stories so until then please enjoy the Small Town Murders!
> 
> I would greatly appreciate any feedback from this story, but please don't be mean, haha!
> 
> Thank you, thequeenxofhearts

Prologue

As they lowered her son's coffin into the ground, she wondered who could have done something like this to her boy.

Everyone talks about their children as if they were the world's greatest, and in the eyes of their parents, they are.

But she knew there was something special about Milo, something unique. Sure, all parents say that, but Milo was unique.

All of her children were special in their way, but Milo was just different from the other two. She had faith in all of them, especially Milo.

At just 9-years-old, he was already top of his class in all his lessons, especially history and science. Maybe one day he would have been a scientist or a historian, maybe a professor.

But that was all gone now.

She looked down at her two other children. Milo's siblings.

They were both shocked at the news that Milo had been killed, but, like their mother, they thought it was an accident. But no.

Milo was murdered and left for someone to find him.

With the help of the local police department and the majority of the community, his body was found the day after he was reported missing.

He had been playing out with his brother who had turned his back for just a few minutes to find that Milo was gone. He had looked around for him but could not find him. He assumed that maybe he had just gone home, but no.

They went out searching with some of the neighbours, and in just a few hours, the police and the rest of the community were out looking for the boy.

Milo's body was found by a man and his dog who were on the search.

A killer had still not been found.

Milo's brother took a handful of dirt and threw it into the ground on top of the coffin. Then is brother threw some in.

And then she did, Milo's mother, 'Goodbye, my boy.' She cried.

Her brother wrapped her arms around her and pulled her away from the hole in the ground, worried that she might fall in.

She dabbed her eyes with her tissue.

The phrase "there was not a dry eye" did not apply here.

Yes, almost everyone was crying.

Almost everyone excluding her surviving son.

Chapter 1

'Guilty on all charges.'

The judge tapped his gavel as there was a discussion in the courtroom, 'Silence!'

The leader of the jury sat down again, and the judge began to speak, 'George Blake, you have been found guilty on all charges, therefore you will spend 5 years in New York State Prison.'

Then the judge leaned forward and looked, Mr Blake in the eye, 'I hope you will use this time to think very carefully about what you have.'

Judge Timothy Beadle was a tough judge. He had a voice which made one think they were a child being scolded in a lesson.

Daphne felt goosebumps cover her arms as she listened to the judge.

'Courtroom dismissed.' And he tapped his gavel again.

Mr Blake looked back at his daughter.

Daphne looked at him for merely a second before she stood up and left.

She walked through the courthouse, and out to the parking lot.

She pulled her car keys out of her pocket and hit the unlock button on her key. The Jeep Cherokee's side mirrors opened and the blinkers flashed for a couple of seconds, indicating that the car was unlocked.

She pulled open the door and climbed into the driver's seat.

It had snowed last night. The weather reporters had been predicting snow all week and finally on Thursday night, it snowed.

Daphne sighed. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and texted her sister, 'guilty, 5 years.'

She put her phone in the pocket at the front. Then she opens the glove compartment in the from the passenger seat, and she pulled out a packet of cigarettes and a lighter. She opened the packet and selected a cigarette, and she lit it.

She started the engine so she could roll down the window and smoke.

Her phone vibrated.

She picked it up and saw her sister had replied to her message; 'good, he deserves it after what he's done.'

Daphne didn't reply, she put her phone back.

She took a long drag on her cigarette and a few seconds later she exhaled the smoke.

She smoked for a few more minutes before dropping the cigarette out of the window. She rolled it up and reversed out of the parking space.

As she drove through the city, heading for home, she turned on the radio; which she regretted.

The radio, KDKA, is reporting on her father's sentencing.

'George Blake, the owner of Luxury Bubble Bath, has been found guilty on all charges and sentenced to just 5 years at New York State Prison. In the Summer, Blake was charged with a battery assault on his wife Elizabeth Blake, and during the investigation the was also charged with stealing money from his employees, and in some cases not paying them correctly or not at all. His daughter Daphne Blake was present at the trial but left before we could speak-'

Daphne turned the radio off. She hated that the radio had named her, but she was lucky that they didn't mention her workplace. Not that it would have mattered, almost everyone in the city who knew she was, and where she worked:

Detective Daphne Blake

New York Police Department

She heard her phone vibrating then she heard the familiar sound of her ringtone. She pressed some buttons on the screen in the car and then the caller ID popped up, FRED

'Hello?' She answered.

'Hey Daph, I just heard on the radio.' He said.

Daphne sighed, 'I'm on my way home from the courthouse.'

'Are you ok?' Fred asked.

'I'm fine.'

'Are you sure?' He asked.

Daphne nodded, then she realised Fred couldn't see here, 'Yeah, I'm ok. Do you wanna get a drink later?'

'Why don't I bring a bottle of something to your apartment?' He suggested.

Daphne smiled, 'Yeah I think that would be better.'

She heard Fred chuckle, 'Ok, I'll see you later, bye.'

'See you later, Freddie.'

The call ended. Daphne stopped at a red light, she wasn't far from her apartment.

It felt like the lights were taking forever to change, then she sighed. She couldn't go home yet.

Instead of going ahead and then taking the next left turn, Daphne decided to go ahead and keep going.

She kept going until she reached the Upper East Side and pulled into the building's parking garage. She grabbed her phone and quickly sent a text to her sister before she climbed out of her car, pushing her phone into her pocket.

She locked the car as she walked through the garage, and then she pressed the elevator button and went up to the top floor.

It wasn't a long elevator ride but last a few minutes.

Her phone vibrated in her pocket. She pulled it out, expecting to see a reply from her sister, but instead saw a news article had popped up on her phone:

"BREAKING NEWS! GEORGE BLAKE FOUND GUILTY ON CHARGES OF THEFT AND BATTERY!"

She rolled her eyes and pushed her phone back into her pocket.

The elevator dinged as it arrived on the top floor. She stepped out of the elevator walked across the hall, stopping at the door with brass numbers 1202, she knocked.

Hearing movement behind the door, she knew her mother was looking through the peep-hole on the door. She heard the locks unlocking and the bolts unbolting, then the door opened.

'Oh, hello.' Her mother said nervously.

Daphne's mother, Elizabeth, had only been this way recently. Before all this happened, she was confident and always opened the door with a smile and there had only been the one lock on the door previously.

Daphne smiled at her mother who allowed her into her apartment.

'I've just come from the courthouse.' Daphne explained.

Elizabeth Blake took a deep breath and nodded slowly.

'Guilty, on all counts, Mom.' She said. It was wrong, but she felt a smile tugging her lips and her eyes filled with tears.

Her mother quickly hugged her, Daphne held her tightly, her mother sobbed on her shoulder.

Elizabeth had to testify against her husband for the battery charges against him. She was hidden behind a curtain from her husband, the only people who could see here was the judge and the jury.

Daphne's sister had refused to return to the courthouse after that.

'Are you ok?' Elizabeth asked.

Daphne nodded, she quickly wiped her eyes, 'I thought I should come and tell you before you hear it on the news, or from someone else. I didn't know if Thalia had already called you.'

Elizabeth shook her head, 'She hasn't called me, but I think she was going to come over later with a bottle of wine and we're going to order pizza. Her treat. You can stay if you want.'

Daphne smiled, 'Thanks, but Fred is coming over later.'

Elizabeth smiled. She and Thalia had been talking about Daphne and Fred for a while, Elizabeth wondered if there was something there, but Thalia had insisted that they were just friends.

Daphne rolled her eyes, she knew what her mother was thinking, then they both laughed.

'I better go.' She said.

Elizabeth nodded, 'Ok sweetie, thanks for coming. I'll call you soon.'

Daphne nodded, 'Bye.' And she stepped out of the apartment closing the door behind her. She waited for a couple of seconds, then she heard the bolts being bolted and the locks being locked.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> My original plan was to be updating this on Saturdays. But I have decided that I will be updating on Saturdays and Tuesday!

Daphne pulled on her pyjamas, her favourite pyjamas. She had no matching pairs of them. Her pyjamas were just random t-shirts and random bottoms.  
Tonight she is wearing a beige pyjama top, which is quite baggy, and a pair of checkered green bottoms.  
Sometimes she wondered where she got her pyjamas from because she was sure some of them were not hers. She had wondered recently if any of the t-shirts were her father’s. If they were, they’d be thrown out.  
She had just taken a shower, a well-deserved one. She texted Fred and asked if she should order a pizza for tonight. She did not need to ask him, she and Fred loved pizza.  
Fred replied almost instantly with a question mark. Daphne replied with the laughing emoji, then sent a separate message, I didn’t need to ask, did I?  
Fred replied with a no, and asked what time she wanted him over, Daphne said anytime was good, whenever you’re ready.

She plopped onto the couch and wondered if it was worth putting the TV on. What was on? Crap movies, TV shows she has already watched, and the news.  
Her father’s face was bound to be all over the news, maybe they would mention her again, but they would show her mother’s injuries. She did not need to see that again.   
It started back in the Summer, 12th June, Daphne’s sister had called her. She was worried, Daphne could tell by the tone in her voice. She said she needed a babysitter for the next day as she planned to go back to work from maternity leave and needed to have a meeting with her boss.  
She told Daphne that neither of their parents had been answering their phones, Daphne told her that maybe they’re just busy but Thalia said she had been trying for a few hours. Daphne agreed to go with her sister to her parent's apartment. Thalia said she’d pick her up as she had to drive past Daphe’s apartment building on the way.   
Thalia knocked on the door, ‘Mom? Dad?’ She called but there was no answer.  
Daphne looked down the hall. Their parents had only one neighbour who lived on the top floor, unfortunately, he was on vacation, Daphne tried to remember, she thought that he said he was backpacking Asia.  
If he had been home, she could have asked him if they had seen them leave the apartment.  
But Thalia and Elizabeth Blake were close, they always told each other where they were going because it was likely that the other wanted to come along, or they would ask each other to pick something up for them.  
‘And they didn’t say they were going anywhere?’ Daphne asked.  
Thalia shook her head, ‘No’ She replied, she quickly looked at her phone, no messages or missed calls from either of them.  
Daphne fiddled for her spare key attached to her other keys and she tried it in the lock, but something was stopping it.  
Daphne pulled the key out and knocked on the door, but no answer. Then she knocked again, but a bit louder.  
‘Did you hear that?’ Daphne asked.  
Thalia shook her head, ‘No, hear what?’  
Daphne listened again, and she heard footsteps on the other side of the door, so she knocked again and the footsteps stopped.  
Then they heard a voice, ‘Help…’ it said  
The sisters exchanged looks, ‘Mom?’ Thalia called now banging on the door.  
Daphne pushed her sister to the side, before kicking the door and it swung open, breaking the door handle, the lock and part of the door frame.  
‘Mom!’ Thalia exclaimed. They both looked at their mother, she had a gash across her forehead, cuts on her arms and some bruises too, black and blue ones.  
Daphne caught something in her peripheral vision; her father.  
‘Dad?’ She asked. He gulped nervously and made an attempted to flee the apartment, but Daphne, a highly skilled detective, stopped him.  
Though Thalia watched, she couldn’t figure out how her sister had tackled their father to the ground so quickly.  
Daphne pulled out her phone and dialled 911, she told them who she was, where she was and what it looked like had happened.  
Thalia went to her mother’s side, the woman was frightened and flinched away from her daughter, they both cried.  
‘What the fuck are you doing?’ Daphne exclaimed, putting pressure on her father’s hands which she had pinned to his back.  
He was in his work clothes, Daphne wasn’t sure if he was going to work or had been already and come home. But she looked up at the clock on the wall, it was in the mid-afternoon so he probably hadn’t even been to work.  
Her poor mother had suffered for quite some time before Thalia had called Daphne.  
When her father didn’t respond, Daphne applied more pressure and her father cried out in pain, ‘You’re lucky I don’t have my fucking gun.’ She said through gritted teeth.  
She looked over her shoulder and saw that her mother had finally let Thalia take care of her, and she was attempting to get her to stand so she could clean her up in the bathroom. But Elizabeth was still shaken and Daphne couldn’t tell if she was too scared to move or if she physically couldn’t.  
I wasn’t much longer before the police arrived, along with an ambulance.  
Daphne discussed with the officers, Jacobs, Todd, Dale, and Henderson, what had happened when she and her sister arrived.  
Thalia stayed with her mother when the paramedics took her down to the ambulance, and she was allowed to go with them.  
Daphne wanted her sister’s car to follow behind the police cars, but she decided it was best to go to the hospital, she knew the officers would deal with her father.  
Amid the panic as the police and paramedics arrived, Thalia had unknowingly dropped her keys, but Daphne had spotted them and picked them up.  
She went down to her sister’s car and drove to the hospital.  
When she arrived, she met Thalia in the waiting room.  
‘They think she has a broken leg, but they’re checking her out now.’ Thalia explained, Daphne nodded and sat next to her sister.  
Thalia laid her head on Daphne’s shoulder and sobbed, trying not to be too loud. Daphne took her sister’s hand and told her everything would be ok.  
‘How could it be?’ She asked, ‘Why would he do this?’  
‘I’m gonna find out.’

They were waiting for quite a while before the doctor came out.  
He explained that Elizabeth broken leg and there was some damage to her wrist, along with bruises and cuts which have been cleaned and stitched up. She had a scan to check for internal injuries but had only a few bruised ribs. He explained that he wanted her to stay overnight so they could monitor her, and also because of the fragile state she was in, he said she seemed a lot more calm and relaxed around the doctors.

They were told that they were allowed to go and see her.

Daphne and Thalia went into their mother’s room. She was glad to see them, relieved even. She thanked them both for coming to her rescue.  
Daphne had asked why their father did what he did.  
All Elizabeth said was, ‘Go to his office, he’s done bad things.’

Daphne asked Thalia if she could borrow her car for a bit, Thalia said it was ok. Daphne said goodbye to her mother and sister and she left the hospital.  
On her way out she called Fred and told him what had happened and she asked him to meet her at her father’s building.

When Daphne was a little girl, she often looked up at the building and thought that her dad worked in the clouds because the building was so tall. And when she looked at the huge GB sign at the very top, she always thought of the massive WAYNE ENTERPRISES on top of Bruce Wayne’s building.

Fred had arrived just after she did, and he told her how sorry he was to hear what happened to her mother.  
‘She told me to look in his office because he’s done bad things.’  
‘What does that mean?’ Fred asked.  
Daphne shrugged, and she pushed open the huge glass doors and they walked through the lobby.  
Daphne caught the attention of Stephanie, the young girl at the reception desk. Daphne remembered Stephanie telling her that she was lucky to get a job here because she had children young and she struggled to find a job for a while, but she managed to pay her debts and had plans to take her children to Hawaii.  
‘Stephanie, I need to get to my father’s office. Do you have a spare key?’ She asked.  
‘Sure,’ she stopped herself as she was about to stand from her chair, ‘I need to know why though.’  
Daphne rolled her eyes. She glanced at Fred and they both pulled out their police badges, they made sure to take them wherever.  
Stephanie’s eyes widened, ‘Oh, ok.’ She said nervously. She quickly got up from the chair and unlocked the cabinet behind her.  
Finally, she pulled out the key to Mr Blake’s office.  
‘Thanks.’ Daphne said, taking the key, and she and Fred turned to the elevator.  
‘Is this about the payments?’ Stephanie asked. Daphne stopped and whipped around, ‘What payments?’  
Stephanie knew she had thrown herself in it now, ‘The uh…some of the missed payments.’  
‘I’ll find out when I get up there.’ Daphne said.  
As they went through her father’s paperwork, Daphne and Fred were both shocked to find piles of paperwork indicating that Mr Blake had not been paying some of his staff, and those who were paid were missing money. There were only a select few who had been paid properly, Daphne guessed that Stephanie might not have been one of those people, why else would she bring it up?

There was something else Fred had found locked in the drawer which he pried open. Several pieces of paper stapled together, and as Fred read through he realised that it was a list of lost items.  
Dating back just over a year.  
It was little things like missing hats, scarves or that one random shoe that someone manages to lose.  
It was big things, iPods, phones, watches and various items of jewellery.  
Fred showed Daphne and she read through them, something bothered her about this. Though there were no pictures, the owner of the lost item had written a description of the missing item, one of those items was a Rolex, not a fake, a real one.  
She tried to picture what the Rolex would look like, based on the description, and she realised she might have seen it before.  
She thinks she may have seen her father wearing it a couple of times, and she remembered that he said he was selling it.  
‘Oh, crap.’ She sighed.  
‘What is it?’ Fred asked, but Daphne pulled out her phone and called boss, Captain Williams, she explained to him that her father had just been arrested, and she and Fred were at her father’s office and they had found some evidence of theft and he should come to the building.  
She hung up. It wasn’t long before Captain Williams and a team of officers arrived at the office and they began to file all the evidence into various boxes and transfer it to the station. Captain Williams apologised for what had happened to Daphne’s mother, and he informed her that he was currently being interrogated at the station.

Daphne had taken the car back to the hospital and returned the keys to her sister, Fred offered Daphne a ride home and she took it.


	3. Chapter 3

There was a knock at the door, Daphne went to open it and Fred was standing on the other side with a bottle of whisky. Daphne smiled and let him into her apartment, closing the door behind him.

‘I ordered a pizza.’ Daphne said taking two glasses out of the cupboard. Fred unscrewed the cap off the bottle and poured a small amount into each glass.

They both went over to the couch and Daphne, hesitantly, reached for the TV remote.

‘Wanna watch the Sound of Music?’ Fred asked, ‘It’s on Netflix.’

‘Ok.’ Daphne replied.

Daphne loved the Sound of Music. She felt like it was so much more different to the other musicals.

She opens Netflix and selects the Sound of Music.

She laid her head on Fred’s shoulder and she took a sip of her drink.

The pizza had arrived just as the movie started.

They ate at watched the movie.

Daphne was halfway through a slice of pizza when her phone vibrated loudly on the coffee table and the ringtone played over the movie.

Daphne ignored it and it stopped ringing.

But then a few seconds later, Fred’s phone was heard ringing in his coat pocket. His coat was on the dining table.

Fred had thought about ignoring it, but it might be work if they had already tried to get in contact with Daphne.

Fred put his the glass on the coffee table and got up to get his phone. Daphne paused the movie, and she listened to Fred’s conversation.

‘Hello.’ He answered, ‘Yes she’s here.’ He looked at Daphne as he spoke. She knew it had to be work.

Fred came back to the couch, phone in hand and he pressed the loudspeaker butt, ‘Ok, go ahead.’ Fred spoke.

‘Blake, Jones,’ Daphne recognised the voice of Captain Williams, ‘I know this might be a bad time, but it cannot wait. I have been contacted by the police commissioner in Sandpoint, Idaho.’

Fred and Daphne looked at each other, they both guessed where this was going.

‘They have asked for your help investigating a string of murders in the town.’ The captain spoke.

‘Why us?’ Daphne asked.

‘People know you who are, and the commissioner has been struggling with this case for a few months and it’s gotten nowhere. You guys are like modern-day Hercule Poirot.’

Fred tried to smile, but neither he nor Daphne liked the publicity, they just wanted to do their jobs.

‘Alright.’ They both said.

‘Ok, I’ll call the commissioner. He wants you both there as soon as possible.’ Captain Williams said.

‘We’ll take a flight out tomorrow.’ Daphne replied.

‘Thank you. Have a good evening.’ The captain hung up.

Daphne sighed, she took a big sip of her drink. She reached for her phone and booked the flights to Idaho.

Then she put her phone back on the coffee table and laid her head on Fred’s shoulder again.

‘What time is the flight?’ He asked.

‘1 p.m. tomorrow.’ She replied.

‘Couldn’t you get an earlier flight?’ Fred asked.

‘The earliest was 8 in the morning. You’d have to go now to get packed before the flight.’ As she spoke, she wrapped her arms around his one muscular one.’

‘And you don’t want me to go?’ He asked with a small chuckle.

‘No, I don’t.’ Daphne said giving a small laugh.

Fred and Daphne watched the rest of the Sound of Music and when it was over, Fred left to go home and pack for tomorrow.

Daphne went to her bedroom and pull the suitcase out from under the bed.

She packed enough clothes to last a few days, but they can be washed. She threw her a couple of pairs of shoes and threw in a bag with her toiletries inside it.

Then she pulled her bag out of the wardrobe and packed her pencil case – which contained pens, pencils, erasers and a sharpener – along with a couple of notepads, the book she had been reading, and her glasses.

She sighed as she packed the last item into the bag. She hated wearing her glasses. Her optician told her a couple of years ago that she had to start wearing them, mainly for reading, writing and driving if she needed too. But she hardly wore them.

She thought it was best to pack them though because she would most likely need them.

She went back into the kitchen, the empty whisky bottle sat on the kitchen counter and two empty glasses sat on the coffee table.

She picked up the empty pizza box and put it on the counter next to the whisky bottle.

She quickly washed the two glasses, dried them and put them away.

She hated trips like this, last-minute ones with no knowledge of the time she would be away from home. She could always ask Thalia to pop in now and again.

She grabbed her phone off the coffee table and quickly texted Thalia and explained what was going on.

Thalia agreed to look after Daphne’s apartment for her, and she offered to take her and Fred to the airport tomorrow.

Daphne sent a text to Fred saying that she and Thalia would take them to the airport in the morning.

Thalia asked how long she would be gone and Dahne said she had no idea.

She looked at the clock and decided to go to bed. She locked her apartment door before she went into the bathroom to wash and brush her teeth.

When she went into her bedroom, she pulled open the top draw of her bedside cabinet and pulled out a metal black case. She unlocked it and looked at the gun inside it.

She had almost forgotten to pack it. She closed the case again, locking it, then packed it into her bag. She then opened the wardrobe and pulled out a similar box with the ammunition inside it and packed that too. She also packed her badge so she knew it was safe.

Then she set her alarm clock turned the light off and climbed into bed.

***

Daphne stood at the kitchen table eating a bowl of cereal. Her phone was on the loudspeaker as she spoke with her sister.

‘I’m taking Emily to mom’s then I’ll be coming to pick you up.’

‘Really? You’ll have to go past my apartment to get to mom’s.’ Daphe replied.

‘Yeah but Emily hasn’t stopped whining all morning.’ Thalia said with a small laugh, though Daphne picked up the note of annoyance in her tone. Daphne could hear the child crying in the background.

So she gave a small laugh, ‘Ok, well I’ll see you soon.’

‘Bye.’ Thalia said, and she ended the call.

Emily was Daphne’s niece. She was 14-months-old and quite a handful. She knew that Thalia sometimes spoilt her, she was her only child after all. But Daphne thought Thalia was overdoing it sometimes.

Daphne babysat Emily a couple of times, and she was good for her. But she could sometimes be a handful. Daphne pictured Emily screaming in the back of Thalia’s car, and as she picked her out of the seat and carried her up to their mother’s apartment only to calm down when Elizabeth had her.

She finished her cereal and washed the bowl and spoon in the sink. She had some orange juice quickly before washing the glass and putting it in the cupboard.

Then she sent a text to Fred explaining that Thalia was on her way to take Emily to her mother’s house then they would be at his apartment building soon.

Daphne got her bags ready by the door and double-checked everything inside. Satisfied, she sat on the couch and waited for Thalia.


	4. Chapter 4

It was 8 PM when the plane finally landed.  
Daphne and Fred were both tired from the long flight, and they hadn’t had any sleep on the flight at all.  
It wasn’t a busy flight. There were probably less than half on the flight, but neither of them could sleep on the flight.  
But they had to get the train from the airport to Sandpoint which took an hour. Then they had to get a cab from the train station to the police station where they met the police commissioner.  
‘Hello, I’m glad you both made it safely.’ The commissioner smiled, ‘My name is Aurora Fischer, I’m the police commissioner.’  
She extended her hand out to Daphne and shook her hand, then shook Fred’s.  
The commissioner was a tall woman and dark hair pulled out her face and styled neatly in a ponytail.  
A man was standing behind the commissioner, and she stepped aside and introduced them to him, ‘This is Detective Wheeler.’  
‘Call me Jason.’ He smiled and shook their hands.  
‘I know it’s late so I won’t make this too long. I’ll take you to your accommodation, but I’ll need you back here tomorrow at 8 AM sharp to go over the case. But for now,’ She grabbed a file that was sitting on the desk, ‘This is as much of the case as I can give you. I can’t copy the photographs at the moment, the copier’s broken. But this is the case from the very beginning.’  
She gave the file to Daphne and she quickly wrapped things up, ‘There is a car waiting for you and tomorrow morning Detective Wheeler and I, along with some of the officers on the case, will be here. 8 AM. Don’t be late.’   
Commissioner Fischer turned back to the Detective, ‘I’ll see you in the morning.’  
‘G’night Commish, night guys.’  
The Commissioner ushered Fred and Daphne to follow her outside and as she did this, she pulled a set of car keys out of her pocket.  
Daphne noticed that it was not just an ordinary marked police car they would be driving. But a black unmarked Ford Explorer.  
Commissioner Fischer gave Fred the keys before turning to her car, a black Chevy Tahoe.  
The car had been cleared of snow and Fred pressed a button to unlock the car. Its blinkers flashed as the side mirrors swung open.  
Daphne opened the trunk and they loaded their luggage into the car before they hopped into the front.  
Fred turned the key and the engine roared to life.  
The automatic headlights came on with the engine and the doors automatically locked as the car began moving.  
As they followed Commissioner Fischer through the town, Daphne commented how small the town looked and she couldn’t imagine a hotel in the town.  
But after Captain Williams had spoken to Fred and Daphne about coming to Idaho, he had sent a message to Daphne explaining that he had spoken to the commissioner and they did not need to book a hotel in Sandpoint.  
The roads had been cleared of snow. From what they could see in the night, it was covering most of the houses and fields and the sidewalk.  
Daphne looked down at the file the Fischer had given her, ‘Do you want to go over this tonight?’  
Fred took his eyes off the road for a second and looked down at the file in Daphne’s hands before looking back to the road, ‘I suppose it would be a good idea. We’ll know what we’re getting into tomorrow morning.’  
Daphne nodded then she yawned. All she wanted right now was to just crawl into a warm bed and go to sleep, rather than staying away and working.  
But they had both pulled all-nighters before. Daphne recalled a time when she and Fred were working on a case, they started working at the station, they left the station at about 7 PM and returned to Daphne’s apartment to continue working. Finally, they stopped at 1 a.m.  
Daphne looked at the clock on the dashboard, it was nearly 10 PM. Hopefully, they would be there soon.  
Fischer turned into a road, Fred followed, and Fischer pulled up outside a small house.  
Fred pulled up behind her and Fischer climbed out of her car. Fred and Daphne climbed out of theirs.  
Fischer pointed at the house, ‘Here it is.’ She smiled.  
Fred and Daphne looked at the house; it was a small house, they could tell from the street lights lighting the street. But that was all really, they couldn’t see much more of the house in the little light.  
‘The house key is attached to the car key. There are bread, butter and some milk and coffee in the kitchen, but the convenience store is down the road and on the left.’ Fischer pointed into the street before looking back at the two. ‘I’ll leave you both to get some rest, and I’ll see you in the morning. If you have any problems, please call me.’  
‘Thank you.’ Fred and Daphne said in unison.  
‘Good night.’ Fischer said and climbed back into her car and drove away.

Fred and Daphne removed their bags from the trunk, Fred locked the car and the two walked up to the house.  
Fred selected the house key, pushed it into the lock and turned the key. Daphne looked at the house as Fred unlocked it, she noted that it didn’t look big at all. She couldn’t see the rest of the houses on the street for comparison. But she knew it was a small town, so maybe they were all small houses.  
Fred pushed the door open and felt on the wall for a light switch which he found quickly and flicked the switch.  
The bright light filled the hallway, it was bright and Fred and Daphne saw there was no shade around the naked light bulb.  
They stepped into the house and Daphne closed the door behind her, Fred gave her the keys and she locked it, pulling on the door afterwards to make sure that it was indeed locked.  
They looked around the house.  
The kitchen was small, there was a small dining table in the middle of the kitchen with three chairs around it. There was a tall fridge-freezer which Daphne opened and found a bottle of milk.  
There were not many cupboards, but sitting on the side was a tin of coffee and a loaf of bread. Daphne made a mental note to go to the convenience store at some point tomorrow.  
Daphne put the police file onto the table, she and Fred can go through it once they have checked the house out and put their bags away.  
They checked out the next room which was the living room. There was a TV and two-seater couch, a coffee table in the middle of the room and an open fireplace.  
It wasn’t a modern house, it was quite old fashioned. With vintage wallpaper and furniture and old wooden floors.  
The floorboards were so creaky, nobody would be able to sneak around the house because someone would hear the creaking.  
The next room was a bedroom and next to it was a small bathroom.  
The bedroom wasn’t big. It had a fairly big wardrobe and a bedside table in between two double beds, and a tall standing lamp on the bed nearest the window.  
‘I guess there’s only one bedroom.’ Daphne commented.  
She and Fred both quickly looked at each other, before they stepped into the room. Trying to ignore the awkward tension in the room.  
Daphne put her suitcase on the bed, opened it up and fished for her pyjamas and her toothbrush. Then she zipped her suitcase up and planned to unpack it tomorrow. Fred just wheeled his case to the end of the bed and left it there for the night.  
Fred went back into the kitchen whilst Daphne changed into her pyjamas, then she went into the kitchen and sat at the table with Fred.  
They briefly read through the file and by the end of they had an idea of what was happening.  
A killer was loose in Sandpoint and was killing brothers.

‘I feel like I wanna stay up all night and solve this.’ Fred said.  
Daphne nodded, but she was so tired and she knew Fred was too. It wouldn’t be a good idea to stay up all night and work, not when they have to be up early in the morning anyway.  
They decided to call it a night and left the file on the kitchen table for the morning.

They stood in front of the bathroom mirror together, brushing their teeth.  
‘There’s a killer in this tiny town that nobody has been able to catch for a year.’ Daphne said, her mouth full of toothpaste as she brushed her teeth.  
‘And he or she is only killing twin brothers.’ Fred spoke after he spat out his toothpaste.  
‘I was thinking about that.’ Daphne replied, spitting out hers, ‘I don’t know what to make of it. First I thought that one of the victims was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but then it seemed the killer went back to the house and took another brother after the first one vanished.’  
‘What does this have to do with twin brothers anyway?’ Fred asked. Daphne shrugged, ‘That’s what I wanna find out.

As they walked back to the bedroom, they both suddenly remembered that they were sharing the room.  
They both climbed into their separate beds and Fred turned off the tall standing lamp next to his bed.  
Daphne wondered why this felt so awkward. They had known each other since college, and over the years they had stayed over at each other's apartments. Sometimes they’d sleep in the same bed together or they’d fall asleep on the couch together, and nothing would happen between them. Maybe it was because this time they didn’t have a choice? No, that couldn’t have been it?  
Maybe there was another reason this felt so strange?


	5. Chapter 5

Daphne and Fred arrived at the police station before 8 AM.  
Having a slice of toast each for breakfast, along with a mug of black coffee each, they set off at 7 AM, arriving at the station just after 10 past.  
When they arrived, there was a car in the parking lot. They knew it could not be Fischer’s car, they would have recognised it.  
When they stepped into the station, an officer was sitting at the desk.  
He wore the navy blue police uniform and was busy on the computer when they walked in.  
They didn’t go unnoticed by him, and he looked up and smiled at them both.  
He was of average height and had a decent build for a police officer. He had short thick dark hair and brown eyes that seemed to sparkle as he spoke to Fred and Daphne; ‘You must be the big guns the commish was talking about.’ He stood up as he spoke, and he extended his hand. Daphne looked at his name badge; OFFICER QUINNY  
She shook his hand, then it was Fred’s turn, ‘I’m Detective Fred Jones, this is Detective Daphne Blake.’  
Officer Quinny smiled at them both, ‘Officer Quinny, but you can call me Michael.’  
‘How long have you been a police officer, Michael?’ Fred asked.  
‘Nearly 10 years.’ Michael said with pride, ‘What about you guys?’  
‘Not as long as you,’ Fred smiled, ‘Nearly seven years for both of us.’  
‘Really? You both look so young.’ Michael replied.  
‘We graduated when we were 22 and then started in Crime Scene Analysis a little while later and then moved up to detective rank a little over 5 years ago.’ Daphne explained.  
The officer picked a white mug with the SPD – Sandpoint Police Department – logo on the side, and he took a slurp of his drink.  
Then he smiled, ‘You two have been in this biz together all that time huh?’  
Daphne nodded.  
‘That’s nice, you two make a cute couple.’  
Daphne cleared her throat and Fred looked away awkwardly, ‘We’re not a couple.’ Daphne said.  
‘Oh, sorry.’ Officer Quinny spoke.  
Thankfully, Fischer walked into the station before Fred and Daphne were stuck with finding an answer.  
‘Good morning Detectives. Officer Quinny.’  
‘Morning.’ The officer spoke, ‘Have a good night Commish?’  
Fischer nodded, ‘I had a reasonable sleep, the baby was up most of the night, but that’s Richard’s responsibility when I have work.’ She laughed, and Officer Quinny laughed along with her.  
‘You have a baby?’ Fred asked.  
‘My granddaughter. My daughter and her husband are on vacation in Hawaii, it’s their anniversary and my husband and I offered to have the baby whilst they were gone.’ Fischer explained.  
Then she clapped her hands together, ‘Ok, Detective Wheeler will be here shortly, but until then I will update you both on this case.’  
‘We had a look over the file last night and we have a brief idea of what is going on.’ Fred explained and the Commissioner nodded, ‘That’s good, hopefully, it won’t take long and we can get into it.’  
The Commissioner led Fred and Daphne through the station, up a flight of stairs and into a room which had a sign on the door reading OPERATIONS ROOM  
Inside there was a round table in the middle of the room. At the back of the room were three whiteboards. One with photographs of the victims and a briefing of their age, weight, height, time and date of disappearance and the location of the disappearance. Daphne and Fred realised that all the victims were all identical twins.  
The next one had photographs and location names of the crime scenes and the date and times the victims were found.  
And finally, the last one had photographs of the bodies along with a few points from the autopsy report.

‘Take a seat.’ Fischer said as she turned to the side where there was a coffee pot, she put it on and it began brewing coffee.  
Fred and Daphne took a seat at the table.  
‘How is the house?’ Fischer asked as she sat at the table.  
‘It’s great, very cosy.’ Fred smiled.  
Fischer smiled, ‘Let’s get started then.’  
The coffee pot made a noise as it brewed, and Fischer reached into her bag and pulled out a file similar to Fred and Daphne’s, which they had on the table in front of them.  
Fischer cleared her throat, ‘This all began back in January last year. A woman who lives down the street, not far from here, Mrs Caroline Tudor reported her son Joshua missing on the morning of January 8th. She said Joshua was taken from their home in the night. He was 19, I thought it was strange that someone would break into a house and take a 19-year-old boy. The Tudor’s have a daughter, much younger, Catherine, she’s 9.’  
‘And you thought if someone was going to break in and kidnap someone it would be the child, not the 19-year-old boy?’ Fred suggested, and Fischer nodded to this. ‘We thought the family might have had something to do with the disappearance, and we explained to them that it was strange to take a man rather than a child. What was stranger was that there seemed to be no sign of a break in. No forced entry, nothing to raise suspicion to a break in, but the front was unlocked.’  
‘What did they say?’ Daphne asked.  
‘Well, they were cooperative.’ Fischer began, ‘And they all agreed that it was strange, even more, that nobody was disturbed in the night. They thought they would have heard Joshua fighting off his kidnapper. And after we searched the house we found no evidence that the Tudor’s had used anything to subdue their son and the Tudor’s had no idea why the door was locked because Caroline was certain she locked it.’  
‘He could have snuck out and left the door unlocked.’ Daphne suggested.  
Fischer nodded, folding her hands together, ‘It was his twin brother Charlie who pointed that out. He said that he and Joshua used to leave their bedroom windows open ajar so they could sneak in at night when they were late home and the door was locked and they had no key. None of the windows were open, they were all locked and Peter Tudor said he was awake when all of his children went to bed.’  
Fischer sighed heavily, her eyes glanced over to the coffee pot which had now been completed brewing and full pot sat waiting to be poured. ‘Two days later, on January 9th, in the morning we had a frantic call from the Tudor’s. I was dreading her saying that the child had been taken, but it was Charlie who was gone this time. Joshua’s twin brother.’  
Daphne and Fred both studied Fischer intently, and they could see the confusion on her face as she recalled the incident on the morning of the 9th January.  
‘The Tudor’s were terrified that someone would come back for their daughter and they wanted to take her to Peter Tudor’s parent’s house near Boise. But I wanted to question the family first. The child, Catherine, said she heard nothing during the night, but she remembered that her mother had given her some medicine to help her sleep as she had a cold. Then I questioned the Tudors, separately, starting with Caroline. She had proof from her daughter’s doctor that the medicine was for a cold that she couldn’t get rid of, but I pressed her as I thought she could have given Catherine the medicine to make sure she’d stay asleep through the night. But neither she nor Peter had an explanation as to why their son’s had gone missing two days from each other. I allowed them to take their daughter to her grandparents’ house, but they must return to Sandpoint, and they did which surprised me.’  
Fischer stood up and went to the coffee pot, ‘Coffee?’ She asked, and they both accepted the offer. Fischer offered them milk or sugar with their drinks, Fred took one sugar and a tiny splash milk, and Daphne had neither.  
Fischer brought them their drinks before pouring her own, then she sat back at the table.  
‘Most of the town set out to find the boys. We’re not a big town, so you can imagine we don’t have a big school. Our elementary school and high school share the same building, but different blocks and the pre-school is next door. A lot of the kids used to see Charlie and Joshua taking Catherine to the elementary block before running to their class, even when they graduated Charlie still took her to school.’  
‘Where did the boys work?’ Fred asked he and Daphne had both been taking notes during the briefing, which seemed to impress the commissioner.  
‘Joshua worked with Harry Thompson, he’s our town’s mechanic, and Charlie worked at the elementary school as a teaching assistant. They were having no trouble in their jobs.’ Fischer took a sip of her coffee, ‘Every day, people were out searching for the boys, then on January 14th, a search group were out looking and a man named Robert Greenwood who was part of the group, decided he would search the river again, and he saw something so he called the rest of the search team over.’  
Daphne jotted down the name of the man Robert Greenwood then she stopped, she knew where this was going. She had read it in the file.  
‘They found Charlie Tudor’s body on the bank, and his brother’s body sticking out of the river.’  
Fred ran his hand through his hair and he sat back in the chair, taking everything in.  
‘They were both strangled. And whoever had done it, it was clear that they were either trying to dump the bodies in the river but got caught, or they wanted someone to find them. As you can imagine, the Tudor’s were devastated and they appealed for a killer to come clean and turn themselves in. There were no fingerprints on their of the bodies or their clothing, and there were multiple shoe prints at the scene but they led nowhere. As much as we tried, we couldn’t find anything linking to a killer.’  
Fischer took a sip of her coffee, before she continued, ‘We thought we would have a suspect, but we just didn’t have any leads. Then on March 11th, Henry Richards reported their twin sons Adrian and Sean missing. They had been on a walk with the dog, but the dog had returned home a few hours after the boys had left. They never would have been irresponsible and let the dog out of their sights. I thought this was too weird for the dog to have come home without the boys, but then I thought if he had been scared by an attacker and ran home. The town went out looking for them and the next day their bodies were found.’  
Daphne continued making notes as Fischer spoke, ‘Then on June 21st Christopher and Lee Thomas went missing, their bodies were found July 1st. On August 29th Ryan and Toby Wyatt went missing and on September 1st their bodies were found. The most recent disappearances were of Alfie and Liam Harleson who disappeared on December 21st, a little over a week ago and we have not found them.’  
‘Ok, where did they go missing from?’ Fred asked.  
‘Hannah, the boys’ mother, said they went out to the post office and never came back. We check the camera footage at the police station and the boys arrived at the post office and left too.’  
Daphne finished taking her notes, as did Fred. He thought about the current weather conditions; snow everywhere. How could they find them when it’s like this? At least last year they had no snow so it made it easier to find them, but no, this time there is snow.  
Daphne was thinking the same thing. With her pen in her hand, she tapped it on her notepad and studied the names of the most recent missing boys.  
‘Did all the boys die of the same cause?’ She asked.  
‘Yes, they were all strangled.’ Fischer replied, ‘We looked for DNA on the victims but found nothing, it seemed that our killer wears gloves.’  
That was going to be Daphne’s next question.  
Fred turned back to his notepad, he turned the page over and picked up his pen. Daphne watched as he wrote the names of all the victim's families and the others who had been interviewed, ‘I want to speak to these people.’ He said, ‘I want to speak to them for myself and go from there.’  
Daphne admired him for his determination, but she also knew there was something about that from him that made her realise he might be on to something.  
‘We have no reason to believe the families are involved.’ Fischer explained.  
‘No, but they might say something that they don’t think is important, but is.’ Fred replied.  
‘Can we go back to the scenes?’ Daphne asked.  
Fischer nodded, ‘We can do that today, or we can speak to the families?’  
‘I want to go to the scenes as soon as possible.’ Daphne replied.  
Fischer nodded again.  
Fred knew Daphne was thinking of something, but at the moment he was sure that she didn’t know what she was thinking she might find. But whether they found something or not, they knew it wouldn’t be a wasted trip, that time in crime scene analysis taught them that much.  
‘Ok, so we go to the scenes and then we speak to the families tomorrow if you-’  
The door burst open and Detective Wheeler had arrived, ‘Commissioner I’m sorry to burst in like this, but something has happened!’  
Fischer stood from her chair, she knew what Detective Wheeler was about to tell her, ‘They’ve found the boys?’ She asked, and he nodded.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This chapter mentions violence and is gorier than the previous chapters.

Daphne and Fred followed in their car – with the lights flashing – Fischer, who was following Detective Wheeler inside a police car. There was another police car parked a few yards away and Fred guessed this must have been the policeman who reported to Wheeler.  
They heard police sirens in the distance.  
Daphne and Fred climbed out of their cars, and Fischer climbed out of her’s. Detective Wheeler and the police officer climbed out of the police car. It was lucky the roads had been cleared again this morning, otherwise, that would have been an awfully dangerous ride.

‘A guy was out walking his dog this morning.’ He began, Daphne knew where this was going, the dog found something. She looked back at the town, they were less than 100 yards away from the nearest building but not quite on the outskirts of town.  
Then something hit her, and Fred noticed it too, ‘What’s that smell?’ Daphne asked, she knew it was not the smell of a body but something else, she recognised it but couldn’t think what it was.  
‘There’s a manhole somewhere along this road, and the sewer runs through it.’ Commissioner Fischer explained.  
Detective Wheeler led them towards a mound of snow, surrounded by some trees. Off to the left, it was all clear and Daphne guessed that must be the road that led to the next town.  
They trudged through the snow towards the snow mound, and Wheeler climbed over it, then others followed. It was crunchy under their feet which indicated that it was colder last night.  
As they climbed over the mound, Wheeler stopped on the other side and he looked to the ground. The other’s came next to him and looked at what he was seeing.  
Daphne squatted to get a closer look at what was partially buried under the snow, Fischer followed suite. Fred looked away and he saw a police officer talking to a man who had his dog on a lead. The man looked like he was in his 60’s-70’s, and his dog sat by his feet. The officer was taking notes.  
‘Gloves, Detective?’ Fischer asked, pulling a pair of latex gloves out of her pocket, offering them to Daphne. But Daphne already had some of her own and never worked a case without a pair of gloves in her pocket.  
Fischer smiled as she slid on her gloves.  
Fred and Wheeler squatted next to them.  
Daphne, with her gloves on, pushed a lump of snow to one side to reveal what was underneath.  
A human head in the snow. In the early stages of decomposition but it was recognisable that this body belonged to Liam or Alfie Harleson as she recognised the face from the photographs, but obviously a family member would have to come to confirm the identification.  
She moved some more snow away from the body and noticed some marks on the victim’s neck, ‘Looks like he was strangled.’ She said.  
As she moved more snow away from the body, with the help of Fischer, they discovered that the body was intact and fully clothed.  
Daphne fished in the jacket pockets, then the inside pockets and she found what she was looking for, a wallet.  
She opened it and read the name on the driver’s licence, ‘Alfie Harleson.’ She said showing the licence to the others.  
Wheeler looked around, ‘This whole area is covered in snow, where do we begin to look for Liam?’  
The police sirens grew louder and louder, and finally, the police cars skidded to a stop next to the other cars and the officers immediately jumped out and began setting up police lines around the area.  
Where do we look for Liam? Daphne thought. She tried to remember all the other cases where one brother was found close to the other brother. Either a few feet apart or right next to each other.  
Fred studied Daphne, he watched as she stood up. Fischer and Wheeler watched her too.  
Daphne turned around to the police officers as they busied themselves with the police lines. Then she looked at the policeman who was speaking to the man with his dog.  
The dog could smell Alfie’s body, but he’s not indicating to anywhere Liam could be? And it stumped her.  
‘Daphne?’ Fred asked.  
The more she thought the harder it was to conclude. So she took a deep breath.  
‘Are you ok, detective?’ Fischer asked.  
Daphne was deep in thought; the dog could smell Alfie because he’s exposed, but he can’t smell Liam? The body should be nearby. If he’s close, why can’t the dog smell Liam?  
‘Commissioner.’ Daphne finally spoke.  
‘Detective?’ Fischer asked.  
‘Can you have someone look inside the manhole?’ Daphne asked. Fischer put it together right away, Fred looked up at Daphne and he realised what she meant; the body could be hidden in the sewers.  
Fischer made her way over to the group of officers.  
Fred and Wheeler stood up. Fred asked, ‘Are you sure about this?’ And Daphne nodded.  
‘You want us to look in the sewers, Commish?’ One of the officers asked, and Fischer nodded.  
The officer went to his police car, rummaged around in the trunk and returned with a crowbar.  
‘Oh uh…looks like someone has been at this manhole, Fischer.’ Another office spoke.  
‘Why? What have you found?’ Fischer asked, Daphne, Fred and Wheeler followed her over to the group of officers who stood around the manhole.  
It was only partially covered in snow, unlike the rest of the ground. It could have been possible that the drain company came to inspect the manhole, but the night before a body is found?  
The police officers cleared the manhole of the little snow that covered it, and the officer pried it open with the crowbar and another pulled the manhole cover off.  
Everyone around the manhole was repulsed by the smell.  
But this was a team of law enforcement officers, along with three trained detectives and a police commissioner, who all at some point in their careers would have had to search a sewer for some reason or other.  
As Fred and Daphne watched the officer remove the manhole cover, Fred recalled a case a little while ago where he and Daphne had to search the sewers under the city after a robbery at the jewellers and it was suspected that the thief had hidden in the sewers to evade law enforcement. But he was unsuccessful.  
Daphne and Fred recalled the smell of the sewers, and they remembered that it did not smell as awful as this.  
Fischer decided she should investigate and Daphne volunteered herself to go in with her.  
The two climbed into the manhole. The smell worsened as they went further down into the sewers.  
Daphne pulled her phone out of her pocket and turned on the flashlight, ‘There.’ She pointed and shone her flashlight on the body that was slumped against the wall of the sewers.  
‘Oh, Jesus.’ Fischer muttered, ‘What did this guy do to deserve this?’ She called up to the officers, ‘We need some help in here!’  
‘This is unlike him.’ Fischer muttered.  
‘Huh?’ Daphne asked.  
‘This is not like our killer. He has been leaving them in plain sight, and leaving the victims close to each other.’ Fischer explained.  
‘He knows.’ Daphne commented, ‘He knows we’re gonna be onto him soon. And he’s gonna make it harder and harder for us to find the victims, and himself.’

***  
It has taken its time, but finally, Liam Harleson’s body was removed from the sewers and taken to the morgue along with his brother Alfie.  
Daphne and Fischer had gotten themselves cleaned up a little bit at the station before they headed to the morgue to hear the coroners report.  
‘Strangulation, in both cases.’ Fred said, reading the report, ‘There are no other markings on the bodies, no fingerprints because our killer was wearing gloves.’  
He was annoyed, Daphne could tell.   
Fred dropped the report onto the table and ran his fingers through his hair.  
‘You think he’s gonna start hiding them now?’ He asked.  
Daphne nodded, ‘He knows we’re here. He knows he needs to be careful now or he’ll get caught.’  
‘What do you wanna do?’ Fred asked.  
‘I want to stick to our original plan. I want to speak to the families and the other witnesses, starting with the first victim’s family.’  
‘Ok, let’s go.’  
As Daphne and Fred walked out of the morgue, they bumped into Detective Wheeler, ‘Oh hey, guys.’ He spoke, ‘I’ve just come to collect the autopsy report for Fischer. She’s going ahead with a press conference in a couple of hours, she wants you guys there.’  
‘Why?’ Daphne asked.  
Wheeler shrugged, ‘ I guess to reassure the town that we have the help we need. I’ll catch you guys later.’  
‘I suppose we’ll have to hold off the meetings.’ Daphne suggested.  
‘Maybe it’ll be better, at least then the families and the witnesses will know that we’re here to help them.’ Fred said, Daphne, shrugged, she knew he was right, it was a good idea.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Daphne and Fred returned to the police station, there was a news van parked outside.

They both knew to expect early arrivals when a press conference is held. Some people like to get there early and do a little report inside the van on what is taking place, and others just arrive later.

They walked through the station, and Daphne noticed something that she hadn’t this morning when she and Fred arrived. Maybe it was because they were both tired, or maybe she simply didn’t see it at the time, but there was a board hanging on the wall opposite the desk. And pinned to the board was a poster with a little boy and the words STILL UNSOLVED – MILO PABLO

She didn’t stop to read the poster or the other things that were pinned to the board, she followed Fred up to the operations room where they knew Fischer was.

She hadn’t heard of the name before but she planned on asking Fischer about it.

Fred knocked on the door and Fischer called them to come in from the other side. Fred pushed open the door and Fischer was sat at the table with some paper in front of her.

‘I was hoping you both would join me at the press conference.’ Fischer spoke.

‘You want us to reassure the town that we’ll find this guy?’ Fred asked, and Fischer nodded.

‘Are you ok with that?’

Daphne had forgotten about things that had happened in the news back home. Her father was on the front page of every newspaper, and the main story on every news channel.

‘I won’t answer questions about anything that isn’t related to the case.’ Fischer reassured her, aware of the things in the news.

But Daphne veered off-topic, ‘Who is Milo Pablo?’ She asked.

Fischer looked up at her, ‘Milo Pablo?’ She asked. Daphne stared at her, she knew Fischer knew and she wanted to know.

‘Milo Pablo…he died many years ago.’ Fischer replied.

‘How?’ Daphne asked, ‘There’s a poster downstairs that says “still unsolved”.’

Fred knew Daphne was onto something if it was related to the current case he didn’t know, but he knew she wasn’t going to stop pressing Fischer for details until she had her answers.

Fischer had been in this line of work for 20+ years. Starting as an officer before moving up, and up until she finally became Commissioner Aurora Fischer.

She and her husband both worked full time, and she struggled to balance family life and work-life, but being a commissioner would involve all of her attention, even if Sandpoint was a small town and nothing happened often, but she was in charge of keeping her community safe.

Sandpoint had been a low crime town until 1987 and she finally realised how much harder her job would become.

‘Milo Pablo…he was 9-years-old when he went missing during the summer of 1987.’ Fischer began, she sat at the table, Fred and Daphne sat down too as they listened to the story of Milo Pablo.

‘He was out playing and when he didn’t come home his mother called the police. He had been playing at the park with his brother who had gotten distracted by something and then he realised that Milo was gone. The entire town went out looking for him, worried that he had gotten lost somewhere, or he had hurt himself of something like that.’

‘A few hours into the search and a man with his dog found Milo’s body in the field behind the park. At first, it was assumed that he had fallen and hit his head, but the autopsy report showed he had been strangled.’

Daphne felt her heart stop, Milo’s case was so similar to the most recent cases with the victim left strangled and left to be found.

‘His mother was heartbroken, as any mother would be, and she couldn’t understand why someone would want to kill her son. The town was scared, someone among them or someone passing by had killed this little boy and nobody knew who. There was no DNA left on the body and we had no suspects. Eventually, the case became cold. Milo’s family moved away, nobody could blame them. And that was it.’

Daphne was stumped, there was something about this case that was getting at her and she didn’t know what it was. Her brain was jumbled as she tried to figure it out.

Fischer picked up her paper and asked that Fred and Daphne join her in the press conference. They both agreed and followed her downstairs.

Officer Quinny was sitting at the desk looking outside at the small crowd of reporters and cameramen.

Daphne glanced at the poster of Milo Pablo on her way out. She still could not think what was linking the case, but she knew it was such a small detail otherwise she would have remembered.

Fischer pushed open the doors and the clicking of the cameras was all the three could hear.

Daphne and Fred stood behind Fischer.

‘Today,’ Fischer spoke, ‘We have discovered the bodies of the two most recent missing boys, Liam and Alfie Harleson. Some of you may know them, some of you don’t, but I am making a promise to the families of all the victims that we will find who is responsible for these awful murders. I am joined by Detectives Fred Jones and Daphne Blake from the New York City Police Department, and together we will find this killer. Any questions?’

One of the reporters shot her hand up eagerly, and Fischer motioned for her to speak, ‘You have brought in these two detectives from New York City, does that mean you are not confident that you along with the detectives here could not solve this case?’ She asked.

Fischer cleared her throat, ‘I have brought in these two detectives to assist me on this case, I could solve it with or without their help, but how long will it be before another family is targeted?’

Daphne glanced at Fred, he was looking at her too, neither of them liked Fischer’s response to that question. Another reason why they both hated press conferences.

‘How sure are you that you will catch the killer?’ The reporter asked. ‘I cannot share details about the case at this moment, but I believe the killer knows we are on to him.’ Fischer replied.

Another report put up his hand and spoke, ‘I have a question for Detective Blake.’

Daphne stared at the reporter. Fischer looked at Daphne and smiled a little, but it wasn’t much of a reassuring smile.

Daphne looked at Fred but he didn’t look too pleased about it either.

‘Go ahead.’ Daphne spoke, her voice dry.

‘Are you confident that you can solve the case, given the recent sentencing of your father and the current headlines in New York City?’ The reporter asked.

That lit a fire under the other reporters, and they all began shouting questions out and the cameras were flashing even more.

‘That is all.’ Fischer exclaimed, and she ushered Fred and Daphne back into the police station and closed the door behind her.

‘I knew that would happen.’


	8. Chapter 8

It was dark when Fred and Daphne returned to the house. They had managed to go to the convenience store before it closed for the night and now had enough food to last them at least a week.

‘So, what do you think?’ Fred asked.

‘About what?’ Daphne replied.

‘About this case.’

Daphne scoffed, ‘I think Fischer shot herself in the foot during that conference.’

Fred hummed in agreement, ‘She said she needed us then said she could do it on her own. Hey, why were you asking about that boy earlier?’

Daphne suddenly remembered Milo Pablo and the poster on the board at the police station, ‘Oh fuck I forgot about that!’ She exclaimed, ‘I have a feeling, and I don’t know why yet, but I think Milo Pablo and these cases are somehow linked.’

‘Really?’ Fred asked, intrigued.

Daphne nodded, ‘I can’t put my finger on it, but there is something about Milo Pablo that sounds familiar, I’m sure it’s linked to these cases, Freddie.’

‘And it’s unsolved.’ Fred added, ‘Do you think Milo’s killer could be this killer?’

‘Milo died nearly 34 years ago, that would mean our suspect is older than I pictured.’ Daphne explained.

Fred poured some water into a pan and put it on the stove to boil the water, he took out a packet of spaghetti from the shopping bag and put it on the side.

‘How old were you expecting?’ Fred asked.

Daphne thought, ’30-40. Which would roughly be Milo’s age now. So I would guess that the killer is probably somewhere between 60 and maybe 70, that would mean Milo’s killer would have been around 30 at the time of the murder, maybe even younger?’

Fred sighed, ‘I don’t know Daph.’ He sprinkled a pinch of salt into the pan and continued to let the water boil.

Daphne looked down at the file that she had put on the table. Then she grabbed her notepad from her bag and flicked through the pages until she found what she was looking for. And she sighed, disappointed.

‘What is it?’ Fred asked.

‘I know why I thought the cases were linked.’ Daphne said, annoyed with herself for even thinking that was worth anything, ‘Milo was the same age as the first victims’ younger sister, Catherine Tudor. She was 9 when her brothers died.’

‘I’m sorry, Daph.’

‘How could I think that that could mean something?’ She sat at the table, pushing her notepad away from herself.

Fred sat next to her, ‘It’s ok. It’s good to have a theory or even something that might lead somewhere even if it doesn’t, because you never know.’ He smiled, Daphne looked at him and smiled a little too.

‘I just thought that it was going to be something important, but it wasn’t.’ She replied.

Fred took her hand, ‘That’s ok, we’ve both been in this situation before. Remember?’

She nodded. It was true, every case they had been involved in, they had theories. They would follow them up, and sometimes they would lead to nothing, and other times they would have the tiniest link to something.

Daphne smiled at Fred again, and her eyes slowly drifted down to their hands, Fred was still holding hers. Not lovingly like, but supportively.

She looked back at Fred and saw his cheeks had turned pink, she felt hers getting warmer too.

Fred quickly let go of her hand and stood up from the table and went over to the stove. Daphne could hear the water bubbling in the pan. Fred opened the packet of spaghetti and put some of it into the pan.

Daphne watched him.

Whenever they were staying the night with each other, which was usually when they were working cases and, often, the weekends, they would either order a pizza or Chinese or Fred would cook something.

Daphne wasn’t patient enough to cook something, but Fred was. Daphne loved it when Fred cooked and she preferred his cooking to the takeouts.

Fred glanced back at Daphne whilst he was cooking and saw the way Daphne was looking at him, ‘What?’ He asked.

Daphne realised she was staring at Fred with a little smile on her face, ‘Nothing.’ She said and quickly stood up from the table and walked until she was in the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

Fred remained in the kitchen, wondering what had just happened, before turning his attention back to the spaghetti.

Daphne looked at herself in the bathroom mirror, ‘What the fuck was that?’ She asked herself.

She gave herself a few minutes to splash some cold water on her face, before telling herself to just go back into the kitchen and not act so awkward, or whatever that was back in the kitchen.

She took a deep breath, feeling something strange in her stomach, maybe she was just hungry, she didn’t know. She brushed it off and continued to the kitchen.

Fred was stood next to the stove, holding the police file in his hand, ‘You ok?’ He asked when Daphne came back in, she nodded.

‘I was thinking, maybe tomorrow we could arrange to meet some of the families.’ Fred spoke as he put the file back on the table.

‘Good idea. Maybe we can find out where Milo Pablo’s family are, I’d like to speak to them too.’ Daphne added. Fred had an unsure if it was a good idea or not, ‘I dunno Daph, we don’t know where they’re living now.’

Daphne thought for a minute, ‘I’m not sure if I want to reveal too much information to Fischer.’

Fred didn’t say anything, but he knew that Daphne was bothered by Fischer’s reaction to one of the reporter’s questions, maybe she was jealous of them, he didn’t know.

‘We can’t keep things hidden from her, she’s the commissioner, but maybe we should be careful with how much we involve ourselves with her.’ He suggested and Daphne agreed to this. They were not above putting their public image above their job but they had dealt with people like Fischer before. People who are involved with the cases but decide to take all the credit for it.

People like one of the former officers from the NYPD who was involved in the pursuit of a criminal.

Daphne and Fred, along with two police officers, Danvers and Garrett, had tracked the location of a jewel thief they had spent months looking for. And we’re not just talking jewellery store robberies, this guy – who was identified as Robert Green, a car salesman – stole jewels from museums, along with various other artefacts which he intending selling on the black market.

Daphne, Fred, Garrett and Danvers had surrounded his workplace, however, Robert Green climbed out of a window in an office, and it was Officer Garrett who began the pursuit on foot, followed by Danvers.

Garrett and Danvers pursued Green on foot, but Danvers was falling behind not long into the chase. However, Garrett – who had chased Green almost 4 blocks – finally tackled him to the ground, and eventually, Danvers caught up and cuffed him.

Daphne and Fred arrived in the police car and took Green to the station, making sure that Garrett and Danvers were praised for the arrest. But it wasn’t long before Danvers began taking all credit for the arrest. Stating that he and Garrett both pursued and caught Green, but neither Fred nor Daphne witnessed the tackling of Green taking place.

They relied on a woman who came forward with video footage – following a news report in which Danvers claimed he tackled Green along with Garrett – of Garrett tackling Green, and Danvers catching up to arrest him.

Following a controversial report on ABC News – and then other stations and newspapers who wanted to cover the story – Danvers was suspended for several weeks and when Captain Williams could not clean things up, Danvers was dismissed.

Daphne didn’t want Fischer to get herself into something she couldn’t get out of. A lying police officer is not good, but a lying police commissioner is not reassuring especially in the eye of an already frightened community.

Fred and Daphne agreed to be careful about what they said to Fischer if she was out to make herself look like the sole cracker of the case.

Fred made some sauce and Daphne grated some cheese. Fred then drained the spaghetti and mixed the sauce into it and sprinkled some of the cheese in before putting it back on the stove to heat the sauce and melt the cheese. When it was ready, he dished it up and sprinkled the remaining cheese on top and gave Daphne a bowl.

They decided to eat in the living room in front of the TV. Daphne picked up the remote and turned the TV on, and what would be the channel be on? The local news, of course.

There were images of the press conference from earlier today and Fred and Daphne just happened to switch it on when the reporters were mentioning the question asked to Daphne by the reporter.

It wasn’t a real news channel, just three men and a woman sat around a table discussing the case. Daphne recognised the woman from the crowd of reporters outside the police station at the press conference.

‘One year Dale, it’s been a year since the first murders, and we have a commissioner who can’t solve it so she brings in two detectives from the other side of the country, one of whom may be too preoccupied with her personal life to work on the case.’

‘I noticed Detective Blake didn’t answer the question asked by Dylan Murray and the commissioner terminated the press conference.’

‘I think we all noticed how quick Commissioner Fischer was to terminate the conference when that question was asked.’

‘Let’s just cover this super quick, for those of you who don’t know, Detective Blake’s father George Blake, the founder of Luxury Bubble Bath, was convicted earlier this week after being found guilty on battery charges to his wife and several counts of theft, and-’

Fred took the remote from Daphne and turned the channel over, it was the Simpsons on the next channel.

Daphne sighed. She hated the media attention and she hated the reporters talking about her like they had her permission. She wondered why they just didn’t report on the case which was much more important instead of making it seem like she couldn’t handle the ‘pressure’.

Daphne tried her hardest to ignore what she had just heard on the news channel, and she ate her spaghetti.

***

The empty spaghetti bowls, along with the pot, were in a bowl of warm water in the sink. They’ll wash them in the morning, or when they get back tomorrow night.

But right now, Fred and Daphne sat on the couch together watching the Simpsons. Daphne laid her head on Fred’s shoulder, they both laughed as they watched Homer Simpson get up to his usual antics and fail hilariously.

They often watched the Simpsons as a pick-me-up after a long, tiring day, or if they couldn’t decide what movie to watch.

The episode ended but was followed by another episode in which Homer Simpson recalled how he met his wife Marge, which was at high school and fell in love instantly.

Daphne’s mind wondered and she recalled how she and Fred met, she didn’t know why she suddenly thought of this, but it just came to her. They were freshmen at college and they met in their first class and decided to start studying together and quickly became best friends.

Why she was thinking about this she didn’t know, but as the thought about it, that strange feeling in her stomach returned, and she realised what it was; butterflies.

And it was Fred who was causing them.

Fred who had been her best friend for years and years, why was she just realising this now?

She began to feel a little bit awkward as she thought about this whilst she sat with Fred. She had missed quite a bit of the episode during her thoughts and Fred was still watching the TV when her eyes rolled up to look at him.

She didn’t stop herself as her arm wrapped itself around Fred’s waist, but she felt comfortable with it.

She thought Fred wasn’t going to react to it, but she moved a little bit before she felt his arm around her shoulder.


	9. Chapter 9

Daphne laid in her bed. Her body and mind were tired but she couldn’t seem to get to sleep.

Fred and Daphne had decided to go to bed when the final episode of the Simpsons had ended.

Sleeping in the same bedroom did not feel as strange as it had the previous night, the two had simply brushed their teeth and climbed into their separate beds.

Fred was sleeping, snoring quietly. Daphne was lying awake, it was not Fred’s snores keeping her awake, but something else.

Her head rolled to the side, and she watched Fred sleeping. The moonlight leaked through the curtains.

It wasn’t him keeping her awake, something else maybe, she didn’t know what.

She laid in the bed staring at the ceiling, hoping she would fall asleep soon.

But no prevail.

She sighed, all she wanted to was to go to sleep and it was infuriating how difficult it was to get to sleep.

She flung the bedsheets off herself and climbed out of the bed, stepping over to Fred’s bed.

She looked down at him before she gently nudged his shoulder, ‘Fred.’ She whispered.

No response, so she nudged him a little bit more firmly and he grunted, ‘Freddie.’ She whispered again, and his eyes rolled open, ‘Daphne?’ He asked, ‘Are you ok?’

She nodded, ‘I can’t sleep.’

Fred yawned, but he tried to smile as he did so. He pulled the bedsheets back, ‘Come on.’ He said scooting over to let her into his bed.

Daphne slid into the bed with him and he wrapped the sheets around them both.

She laid on her side facing him, realising how close they were and she could taste his minty breath from him recently brushing his teeth.

Fred’s arm wrapped around her and pulled her closer. Her head fell onto his chest and she felt her eyes getting heavier, ‘Thanks Freddie.’ She said quietly.

Fred smiled, pressing his lips to the top of her head, and Daphne felt her cheeks flush, ‘Good night, Freddie.’

‘Night, Daph.’

***

‘Daphne.’ Fred called from the kitchen, ‘Coffees ready.’

He heard Daphne’s muffled reply from the bathroom. He rolled his eyes, chuckling to himself thinking that her coffee would taste awful after just brushing her teeth.

Fred flung a tea towel on his shoulder as he washed the bowls from last night and the plates from this morning’s toast.

He quickly dried his hands when he heard his phone vibrating on the table, he saw the caller ID Det. Wheeler

He answered it, ‘Wheeler?’ Fred asked.

‘Jones, there’s something you should know.’ Wheeler began, ‘I just had a phone call from Doctor Brooker, the guy who carried out the autopsy on Liam and Alfie.’

‘What is it?’ Fred asked.

‘He said their bodies were not frozen enough.’ Wheeler said. Fred didn’t think this made any sense until Wheeler continued, ‘We suspected that the boys had been out there for a while, but Brooker thinks they may have only been out there a few hours, probably the night before at the latest. Their bodies must have been moved from somewhere.’

‘What?’ Daphne asked noticing the look on Fred’s face, unaware of what was being said.

‘There’s nothing on either of the bodies to indicate they had been dragged, and there’s no evidence at the scene that shows either. My suggestion is that they were carried, which backs up another theory I have.’ Wheeler spoke.

‘What would that be?’ Fred asked.

‘My theory is they were going to be put there anyway, but the killer decided to put Liam’s body in the sewers when you guys arrived in town. I think he knew you were coming and had decided to do to get your attention or to make it more and more difficult for us to find his next victims.’

‘We’re on our way now.’ Fred ended the call.

‘What?’ Daphne asked again.

‘Wheeler.’ Fred began, ‘Drink up, I’ll explain on the way.’

Daphne took a sip of her coffee and grimaced at the taste of coffee and toothpaste.

***

Daphne, Fred and Wheeler sat in the operations room, Wheeler was explaining to them – in more depth – his theory and Doctor Brooker’s report.

‘Where is Fischer?’ Daphne asked.

‘With Doctor Brooker, the boys’ parents have asked to see their sons.’

‘We need to come up with a plan of action.’ Wheeler said, ‘And now, we must stop him before he kills again.’ He stood up from the table and turned one of the whiteboards over to the blank side.

He grabbed one of the pens and stood ready to start writing points on the board.

‘Let’s make a profile.’ He pulled the lid off the pen.

‘I’ve been thinking.’ Daphne began, ‘Yesterday, Fischer told me about Milo Pablo. At first I thought our killer might be in his 30’s, maybe even as old as the mid 40’s. But now I’m not so sure.’

‘Milo Pablo was killed in 1987 at the age of 9. By what Milo’s brother had said we assumed that a killer would be aged between 25 and 35. Meaning that he had to be quick enough to snatch Milo before his brother saw witnessed the kidnapping.’ Wheeler explained.

‘I know. Milo died 34 years ago which would make his killer in his 60’s or 70’s and I doubt these two cases are the same killer, how could a man that old possibly carry two bodies, pull up the manhole cover and put a body in the sewers without being noticed by anyone, or slipping up?’ Daphne asked.

‘That doesn’t sound possible.’ Wheeler said.

‘No, it doesn’t.’ Daphne commented, ‘Initial I thought the killers were the same, but now I’m thinking, maybe we have a copycat?’

Wheeler looked from Fred and Daphne, ‘It could be possible.’

‘Has anyone been working on Milo’s case since his murder?’ Fred asked. ‘It went cold.’ Wheeler replied, ‘We put up posters around the town reminding people to call in if they thought they knew anything. But nothing came of it and eventually the posters were destroyed by the weather.’

‘After so many years, why would someone now be copying a cold case murder?’ Daphne said aloud, now doubting her copycat theory.

‘Detective’s on Milo’s case spoke to the family and they knew of nobody who had anything against them. Nobody at all who would want to harm their child.’ Wheeler spoke, putting the pen lid back on and it clicked.

‘I think we should go ahead with our plan and speak to the families.’ Daphne spoke.

‘I think so too.’ Fred replied.

‘Good idea.’ Wheeler added, ‘We’ll split up the interviews if you guys want?’

Daphne nodded, ‘Good idea.’

Wheeler smiled and gave a nod. Fred’s eyes narrowed for a second as he saw Wheeler smile at Daphne. Then he said, ‘Daphne and I will speak to the Tudor’s first.’

Wheeler nodded again, ‘I’ll speak to the Wyatt’s and Thomas’, you wanna speak to the Richards’ too?’ He asked.

‘We will do.’ Daphne replied.

The three knew to leave the Harleson’s for a little, to give them time for the news to sink in. Maybe Fischer would speak to them if she allowed them to see their boys.

The three gathered their notepads and exited the operations room.

They went their separate ways in the parking lot, Daphne and Fred climbed into the Ford Explorer and Wheeler climbed into his black Jeep.

Daphne pulled out of the parking lot and Fred read out the address of Tudor’s home.

It wasn’t hard to find, it was only a few blocks away from the station and only a few houses into the street.

Daphne parked outside the house and climbed out of the car. There was a blue Nissan pickup parked on the drive and a snowman built in the front garden.

They walked up the little path to the front door. Daphne rang the doorbell and they both pulled their badges out of their pockets. The door slowly opened and a man stood on the other side.

Daphne and Fred showed him their badges, ‘I’m Detective Jones, this is Detective Blake. We’re working on the recent cases involving kidnappings and murders in the town.’ Fred spoke.

The man bowed his head, ‘I’m Peter Tudor, Josh and Charlie’s father. Come in.’ He said, allowing them into their home.

He closed the door behind them and led them through to the kitchen where a woman and a young girl stood next to the oven. They both wore aprons and both had their hair tied in messy ponytails.

Caroline Tudor’s smile dropped from her face when she saw Fred and Daphne.

‘Catherine, why don’t you go and watch TV in my bedroom and I’ll call you when the cake is ready to come out of the oven.’ Caroline spoke, trying to sound a bit more cheerful when she spoke to her daughter.

The little girl nodded. She went to the fridge and grabbed herself a bottle of water before running upstairs.

‘You’re here about the murders?’ Caroline asked.

‘We are.’ Daphne replied.

‘We’d like to ask you a few questions.’ Fred said.

‘We already gave our statements last year when our boys…our boys were killed.’

‘We’re reinvestigating, going over the statements and just making sure there was nothing that was missed or someone you might remember that could have had something to do with it.’ Fred explained.

‘It’s the least we can do, Caroline.’ Peter Tudor spoke.

Caroline Tudor nodded, ‘Ok. Please, sit down.’

She motioned them to the dining table, ‘Can I get you anything to drink?’ Caroline asked.

‘Oh, no thank you.’ Fred replied.

‘No thank you.’ Daphne said.

The four sat at the table, ‘Where would you like to start?’ Peter Tudor asked.

‘If it’s ok with you, we’d like to start from the beginning.’ Fred said.

Both Caroline and Peter looked uneasy.

‘I can’t imagine how difficult this is for you, but we aim to have this case solved as soon as possible.’ Fred reassured the grieving couple. They both nodded, Caroline gave a thankful smile.

***

By the end of the interview, Daphne and Fred like it had been a waste of time. Everything the Tudor’s had told them matched up to their statements from the beginning of the case last year.

They climbed back into their car. Fred went through the paperwork and found the address for the Richards’, who lived only a five-minute drive from the Tudor’s.

When they found the house, they pulled up outside.

There was a very small driveway and not much of a path leading to the house, but it didn’t look like it had been cleared so they were careful not to slip if it was icy.

Fred rang the doorbell this time, and when it opened they saw a boy on the other side of the door. He looked to be 13-15-years-old.

‘Hi, are your parents home?’ Fred asked.

The boy nodded and he turned away from the door, ‘Mom, Dad, some people are here!’

A few seconds later a woman appeared in the doorway and Fred and Daphne presented their badges, ‘Hello Mrs Richards, I’m Detective Blake, this is Detective Jones, we’re reinvestigating the recent-’ remembering the boy was there she had to find a kinder word than “murders”, ‘incidents.’ She finished.

Louise Richards knew exactly what she meant and she allowed them into the house, she told the boy to go to his room and take the barking dog with him. Daphne caught a glimpse of the name of the dog's collar; CHAPPIE.

‘My name is Louise, this is my husband Henry.’ Louise Richards introduced herself and her husband Henry Richards who had just walked into the room.

‘Hello.’ Henry said.

Daphne and Fred shook their hands.

‘I’m sure you have heard about the recent incident?’ Daphne asked and the Richards nodded.

‘Please sit down.’ Lousie Richards said and she and her husband sat down on the couch behind them. Fred and Daphne sat on the couch opposite the Richards’.

‘We could like to go over the case with you. We want to make sure nothing was missed in the original statements or if you’ve remembered something that you might not think is important, but we will be looking over everything.’ Fred said.

Henry Richards nodded, ‘On March 11th Adrian and Sean took Chappie for a walk. Tyler wanted to go but he had to do his homework which was due the next day. Firstly, I don’t remember how long the boys were gone, then I heard Chappie barking and thought they were home. But Chappie was so distressed by something and I knew something had happened. Maybe one of the boys was hurt or they both were and Chappie came home to alert us. But I…I tried to get him to take me to them and he would not leave the house. Something had scared him.’

Fred took notes and Henry Richards spoke.

‘I called my neighbour and I asked him to stay with Tyler and Chappie whilst I went out to look for the boys. And my neighbour said he would come with me and his wife would stay with Tyler and Chappie. So we went to look for them. I didn’t know where they had been but they usually take Chappie to one of the surrounding fields so he can play with his ball. We walked up and down the streets but found nothing. So I decided to call the police and tell them what had happened, and they came out straight away. I also called Louise who was at work and she came home.’

Louise Richards dabbed her eyes with a tissue she held tightly in her hand.

‘By the early evening, most of the neighbourhood was out looking for the boys and we suddenly remembered the kidnapping/murder case a few weeks prior and we were worried for their lives. Tyler was only 13 at the time, he hadn’t long celebrated his Birthday and the boys bought him a new skateboard for his birthday, a proper one.’ Henry Richards smiled a little, ‘He was so happy.’

Pausing briefly to wipe his eyes and blow his nose, but it was Louise Richards who continued the account of events, ‘We stayed up all night, we had sent Tyler to bed and Chappie stuck to his side like glue. About 9 o’clock the next morning, a police officer came to the door and told us the two bodies had been found it was likely they belonged to our boys. And we had to go and identify them. It was them.’

‘I’m so sorry.’ Daphne said, trying to keep herself from getting upset so she could focus on the case.

‘Do you remember anyone who stuck to you, anyone acting strangely? Or seeing anything that made you think twice?’ Fred asked.

The Richards’ thought for a few seconds before Louise shook her head, and Henry replied with a “no”.

And Daphne and Fred both realised that there was nothing different about their original statements and what they had just told them.

‘I hope my boys didn’t suffer for too long.’ Louise Richards broke and began crying, her husband comforted her, but she gathered herself together to say something to Fred and Daphne before they left, ‘I hope you find who did this to my boys, and those other boys. It’s been a year nearly since we lost them, and you being here today has given new hope.’ She smiled at them and led them to the door, showing them out.

Daphne wiped her eyes as she walked back to the car and she noticed Fred looking a bit teary-eyes as well.


	10. Chapter 10

Detective Wheeler climbed back into his car. The interview with the Thomas’ hadn’t brought him much luck, they said the same thing as they had on June 21st when their sons Christopher and Lee went missing.

And nobody stuck out as odd to them either.

His next stop was the Wyatt’s.

Steven Wyatt and his wife Nicole Wyatt. Nicole is not the biological mother of Christopher and Lee. Their birth mother is a woman named Judith Harper. Steven and Judith divorced five years before the murder of their sons. Steven remarried three years ago, and Judith has told friends that she is happy being a single mother.

Wheeler pulled up outside the house, quickly flipping through his notes and when something caught his eye.

He grabbed his phone and called Fred Jones.

‘I think I have something.’ Wheeler began.

‘Detective Wheeler? Where are you?’ Fred asked.

‘I’m outside the house of Steven and Nicole Wyatt, but I was going through my notes and I found something. The boys who have been kidnapped and killed are all twins, identical twins, I think we’ve seen that by the photographs, but there is something else. In each family, there is one sibling left behind.’

Wheeler heard Fred’s breath hitch in his throat, though he didn’t say anything he could tell he had surprised him. He could hear Daphne ask what was going on.

Wheeler continued, ‘The Tudor’s have a 9-year-old daughter, the Richards’ have 13-year-old son, the Thomas’ have a 13-year old daughter, the Wyatt’s have 9-year-old daughter and I just check the files and the Harleson’s have a 13-year-old.’

‘What the fuck.’ Fred replied.

‘I don’t know whether to interview the Wyatt’s now or head back to the station and go over things.’ Wheeler explained.

Fred sighed, ‘Interview them and see what they say.’

‘Ok, I’ll meet you guys back at the station when I’m done.’ Wheeler ended the call and climbed out of his car.

***

After Fred had explained Wheeler’s findings to Daphne, she reminded him that Milo Pablo was also 9-years-old and suggested that they look into his case more.

They arrived back at the station, Fred messaged Wheeler and told him what they were doing.

When they walked into the station a police officer with the name badge OFFICER LOGAN sat behind the desk and told them that Fischer was taking the statements of the Harleson’s and a specialist was speaking with the surviving son.

Fred and Daphne went up to the operations room and searched through for the case file labelled PABLO, MILO

It wasn’t hard to find, his name stuck out to Daphne. Plus it was the thinnest file in the ‘P’ section.

Fred flipped to a fresh page in his notepad and he and Daphne sat at the table together. Fred took notes as they read through it.

Both getting goosebumps when they read that Milo Pablo, aged 9, had a twin brother and a 13-year-old sister. Though neither of them was interviewed due to the state of shock they were both in.

Daphne ran her hands through her hair and leant back in the chair, ‘So does this mean that our killer is also Milo Pablo’s killer, or are the cases related some other way?’

Fred shrugged, ‘I guess when Wheeler gets back we can discuss it.’

‘I think the only option is to find out where the Pablo’s are now and maybe find a way to interview them.’ Daphne suggested.

Fred nodded, pulling his phone out of his pocket, he did some research. Daphne leant over his shoulder to look at what he was doing.

Fred felt goosebumps tingle over his body as he felt Daphne’s warm breath on his neck but remained focussed on his phone.

He found out that Pablo’s house was sold to a couple by a local realtor Sandpoint Homes. The database showed that Pablo’s did not purchase a house from Sandpoint Homes indicating that they left town. No one could blame them if they did, but it was going to be tasking finding where they went.

So Daphne grabbed her phone and began searching on the nationwide database for women named Rosie Pablo. Based on the information from the police file, Daphne worked out that Rosie Pablo – Milo’s mother – would now be 73 years of age if she was still alive. She hoped she would be. And Milo’s older sister Willa and his twin brother Luca would be 47 and 43.

She found a woman named Rosie Pablo who had died at the age of 70 at Sacramento General Hospital. Her death certificate said cancer.

Daphne went back to the database and found that Willa Pablo had married a man named Paul Baller in 1997 and had three children between 2002-2007. Willia and Paul moved back to Idaho several months after her mother’s death, though she does not live in Sandpoint. Surprisingly, Willa and her family reside in Sandhurst which is just over an hour away from Sandpoint.

Making a quick note of the address, she went back to the database and searched for Luca Pablo. Catching Fred’s attention when she gave a hum of confusion, ‘What is it?’ He asked, leaning over her shoulder.

‘There is no record of Luca Pablo after 1999.’ Daphne spoke, ‘The last any records saw of him was when he had an x-ray at the dentist and that’s it. He disappeared two years after his sister’s wedding.’

‘That’s strange.’ Fred commented, ‘Maybe he’s taking Milo’s name, they are brothers, after all, maybe it’s a sentimental thing?’

Daphne searched Milo Pablo and all that came up was his birth and death certificates. Born January 9th 1978. Died June 21st 1987.

‘Hang on a minute.’ Fred said and he grabbed the two police files – Milo’s and the one Fischer had given them – and he flipped through the pages.

‘What is it?’ Daphne asked.

Fred looked back at her, amazement on his face but also shock, ‘Milo Pablo…Charlie Tudor went missing on what would have been Milo’s 42nd Birthday and the Thomas brother’s disappeared on the 33rd anniversary of his death.’

A smile flashed across Daphne’s face before her face returned to its confused look, ‘So the cases are linked?’

The door opened and Wheeler walked in, ‘What?’ He asked when he saw the looks on their faces.

‘We have a link.’ Fred said and they showed Wheeler their discovery, ‘What happened to Luca Pablo?’ Wheeler asked. Both Fred and Daphne shrugged at this, they did not know where Milo’s brother had disappeared to or if he was still alive. But they had to find out.

***

Returning from his break, Officer Quinny took over from Officer Logan who took his turn for a break.

He heard footsteps coming down the stairs and looked over to see Commissioner Fischer walking with Hannah and Andrew Harleson and their 13-year-old son Ronnie Harleson, all three looked distressed and the parents were crying.

A woman – who Quinny knew to be the child specialist – walked alongside Ronnie Harleson with her arm over his shoulder and he had a look on his face that was almost relieved she was with him.

Fischer escorted the family out of the station and once they had climbed into their car she chatted with the child specialist outside.

Quinny looked away from them and turned to the board on the wall and stared at the poster of Milo Pablo.


	11. Chapter 11

‘What did the Wyatt’s say?’ Daphne asked.

Wheeler shook his head, ‘Nothing new. Everything matched their previous statement.’

‘The families have not been in contact with anyone who sticks out to them.’ Fred stated, ‘And it doesn’t seem like anyone had approached the surviving siblings since the murders either.’

Daphne sighed and she grabbed her notepad, ‘I’m going to speak to Milo’s sister. She lives in Sandhurst.’

‘I’ll come with you.’ Fred said, he stood out of his chair and grabbed his notepad too, along with Milo Pablo’s case file.

‘I’m going to speak to Fischer, she’s done with her interview with the Harleson’s. I’m going to let her know what we found.’ Wheeler said.

Daphne and Fred exchanged looks before Daphne spoke, ‘Not in too much detail though, we still don’t quite know everything. Wouldn’t want to get her hopes up.’ She gave a quick smile, hoping she didn’t make herself sound too suspicious.

Wheeler smiled, ‘I’ve worked with Fischer for 6 years. I know what she’s like.’

Daphne and Fred both smiled at Wheeler before they left the operations room.

Wheeler stood over the table looking down at the paperwork in front of him.

He thought over the information that Daphne and Fred had told him about the links between Milo’s case and the recent murder cases.

The door opened, he looked up and Fischer had entered the operations room, closing the door behind her.

‘The detectives are going to Sandhurst?’ She asked.

Wheeler tells her to sit down, ‘I’ll explain it all to you.’

He told Wheeler about the links between the cases and Milo’s case and how they think the killer is the same person, and unlikely to be a copycat.

‘That would mean the killer would now be in his 70’s at the oldest.’ Fischer stated. Wheeler shrugged, ‘How else could this link exist?’

Fischer was stumped, she was pleased that her team had finally gotten somewhere with this case, but Fischer felt like it wasn’t enough because they still didn’t have a suspect.

‘They located Willa Pablo, Milo’s sister, she’s in Sandhurst.’ Wheeler explained.

‘Willa Pablo? I haven’t seen her since we were kids. She’s married now.’

‘You knew her commish?’ Wheeler asked.

Fischer nodded, ‘Yes we went to the same school together but we weren’t friends.’

‘Do you remember much about her?’ Wheeler asked.

Fischer shook her head, ‘Not really. I remember finding out that one of the kids at the elementary block had gone missing and was later found dead, and my parents were concerned, as were the other parents in the town. It was the middle of Summer and nobody was out playing. The day of the funeral came and Milo’s mother wanted the service to be family and friends only, though all the neighbours left flowers outside their house and there was a vigil outside the home when the family was at the service.’

‘Did you go?’ Wheeler asked.

Fischer nodded, ‘We all did. A little while after the funeral, the Pablo’s packed up and left town. And nobody heard from them again.’

‘Commish.’ Wheeler began, ‘We found out that Willa Pablo is living in Sandhurst. Rosie Pablo, Milo’s mother, died three years ago in Sacramento. But there is no record of Luca Pablo after 1999.’

‘He’s dead too?’ Fischer asked. Wheeler shrugged, ‘There’s no death certificate under his name, and the last record of him was taken from an x-ray in 1999. Daphne searched Milo Pablo in case Luca had decided to take his name but there’s nothing following Milo’s death certificate in 1987.’

Fischer sat back in her chair and took a deep breath, ‘This is a mess.’

***

Fred and Daphne had finally arrived in Sandhurst after the hour-long journey.

Daphne pulled up outside a two-storey house with a beautiful front garden covered in snow.

The house had a large driveway and they saw two cars parked on it, Daphne remembered reading that Willa had three children who were aged between 19 and 14.

They walked up the driveway and to the front door, and Fred rang the doorbell.

The door had a large glass window and they saw a woman in her late 40’s approaching them, smiling as she came closer to the door.

She opened it and smiled, ‘Hello, can I help you?’

Daphne and Fred showed her their police badges and the woman’s face dropped.

‘Are you Willa Baller?’ Daphne asked, remembering Willa Pablo was now Willa Baller.

She nodded, ‘Is everything ok?’

‘Do you mind if we speak with you?’ Fred asked.

Willa shook her head, ‘Of course not, come in. Please.’ She pulled the door open wider and allowed them into her house. She closed the door behind them and led them to the kitchen.

‘What’s happened?’ She asked.

‘Mrs Baller, this is about your brother Milo.’ Daphne spoke.

Willa gulped, ‘You finally found who did it?’ She asked, but Daphne shook her head, ‘Unfortunately not, but we have found more evidence and we hope it will soon crack the case wide open. We’re here today because we need to speak to you about some things.’

‘Like what?’ Willa asked, ‘Oh please sit down.’ She said, motioning to the table.

Daphne and Fred sat down and opened their notepads and Fred laid the police file on the table, Willa sat opposite them.

‘We believe that the recent murders in Sandpoint are linked to your brother’s murder.’ Fred started, ‘The cases have some similarities but what sticks out the most is that second victim, Charlie Tudor, disappeared on January 9th last year, and the 5th and 6th victims, Christopher and Lee Thomas, disappeared on June 21st of last year. Do those dates mean anything to you?’

Willa’s eyes were filled with tears, ‘January 9th is Milo and Luca’s birthday. And June 21st is the day Milo went missing.’

Daphne nodded, ‘Also, the victims are all twins and there is one surviving sibling in each family.’

Willa gasped, Daphne and Fred knew she had caught on.

‘The killer is the same person?’ Willa asked. Fred nodded, ‘We believe so, but the age of the killer is just too old. A man in his 70’s could not have possibly kidnapped and killed ten boys – all in their late teens – and then moved their bodies without anyone noticing him.’

‘You think the killer has to be someone younger?’ Willa asked.

‘Yes.’ Daphne replied, ‘But we are here to ask you a few questions. What do you remember about your brother’s case?’

Willa took a deep breath in, then she exhaled and began her story, ‘I was 13, the boys were 9. My friend came over and we were listening to some music in my bedroom and the boys went out to play at the park. The day before they had been playing with some of the neighbours' kids, but the next day it was just the two of them.’

‘How many of the neighbours' kids?’ Fred asked.

Willa shrugged, ‘I think about 4 or 5 of them, I don’t know.’

Fred quickly wrote it down before Willa continued.

‘They went out to play, my friend was over and we were listening to music. It was just after 12 PM when the boys left, mom had just made us all lunch before my friend arrived. Afterwards, the boys left. My friend left just after 2 o’clock, she and her family were going to her grandmother’s house in California for a week. She didn’t live far from the beach. Anyway, it came to about 4 o’clock and the boys hadn’t come home. Mom wasn’t worried because the sun was still out and they had probably bumped into their friends or they lost track of time. We were joking that the boys were useless at timekeeping.’

Willa smiled a little. Daphne and Fred felt sorry for her; her brother was dead and her mother, her other brother hadn’t been seen in over 20 years.

Willa’s smile fell from her face and she carried on with her story, ‘It happened so quickly. A few minutes after mom and I were joking around, I saw Luca running along the street, I was expecting Milo to be just behind him. Sometimes they raced each other home, but I didn’t see Milo. Luca ran up the path to the house and burst open and was screaming that Milo was gone. Mom told him not to mess around and Luca said that someone took Milo. Luca explained that he had his back turned for just a few minutes whilst he tied his shoes and he thought Milo was behind him but he was gone. He said looked for him but when he couldn’t find him he came home. Mom stayed home in case he came back, but Luca and I went to find him, but there was no sigh. And when we returned home, mom called the police. A lot of the neighbours came out to help us look, along with the police. But a few hours into the search, a man with his dogs found Milo…he found Milo’s body at the back of the park.’

Willa wiped her eyes, ‘The police took a statement from my mom, but they said that Luca was too much in a state of shock to talk to him, so they basically used the information my mom and I told him.’

‘We were told the commissioner that you didn’t give a statement either?’ Daphne asked.

‘I didn’t sign anything to say that I had given a statement, nor did I sit down on my own with a police officer and give a statement. I was with my mom when she gave her statement.’

Daphne thought that was odd. Any witnesses must give a statement. She and Fred once worked on a case where a 6-year-old girl had to give a statement against her father who was using drugs during her visitation. She was on her own with the policewoman who wrote everything the little girl said onto the forms.

‘We were told that Milo had been strangled and that was it. The police had no leads. We had Milo’s funeral and then we left town a few weeks afterwards and the police still knew nothing.’

Fred had wondered, if it was his child who had been killed so harshly, he would want to say in town until the killer was found. He thought it was strange that the family left so quickly after the funeral, but then thought if it was his mother who was experiencing the same thing, he knew she would want to be away from it all as soon as possible.

‘And nobody stuck out to you? Nobody strange, you hadn’t seen before? Killers often pretend to be involved with the search as to make themselves look useful and unsuspecting to others.’ Daphne explained.

Willa shook her head, ‘Not that I can remember.’

‘Did your mother know anyone who would want to hurt your brother?’ Daphne asked, and again Willa shook her head, ‘I don’t think so.’

‘And Luca didn’t see who the kidnapper was?’ Fred asked. ‘No,’ Willa spoke, ‘He said he didn’t see anyone.’

‘Do you know where Luca is now?’ Daphne asked.

Willa shrugged, ‘I don’t know.’

‘But he was in Sacramento the last time you saw him?’ Daphne asked.

‘Yes, he was. It was shortly after Paul and I got married. I haven’t spoken to him since 1999, as far as I’m aware he doesn’t even know out mother dead.’ Willa explained.

‘He could be anywhere?’ Fred asked.

‘He could be anywhere.’ Willa said.

‘Ok, well thank you for your time, Willa.’ Daphne smiled and she and Fred stood up and Willa showed them to the door.

When they climbed back into the car and headed back to Sandpoint, Daphne was going over the meeting in her head, and rereading the case file and their notes.

‘Ok?’ Fred asked.

Daphne shook her head, ‘No.’

‘What is it?’ He asked.

‘I don’t know. Something about Milo’s disappearance is just…not sitting right with me.’ Daphne explained. She rested her chin on her knuckles and she looked out the window.

As he drove, Fred tried to think what it was about the case that Daphne didn’t agree with. Was it the police not interviewing Willa and Luca? Or how quickly Milo was found? Did they need to find out who the man was who found Milo? But he might be dead by now.

‘Can we stop by the park where Milo went missing from?’ Daphne asked.

‘Sure, I don’t think it’s that far from Tudor’s house.’ Fred replied.

***

Fred and Daphne arrived at the park and they were surprised at how spacious the area was.

Daphne sighed heavily, ‘I don’t what it is but it’s not right.’

Fred studied her, he knew she was right, there was something wrong with the case. Something that someone missed.

‘The police said that Luca was tieing his shoes up when he said Milo was taken and that he had his back to his brother.’ Fred said, looking around.

‘He didn’t say exactly where he was though.’ Daphne added. ‘But he was just a kid at the time.’ Fred commented, ‘And he was panicked.’

‘It’s not a very big playground.’ Daphne noted, looking back at the single slide, the swing set and the round-a-bout. She tried to guess how far there were from the playground, she thought roughly about 200 yards.

‘How could he not have seen someone?’ Fred asked looking around them. ‘You took the words right out of my mouth.’ Daphne replied with a smirk.

She knelt to the ground, looking down at her shoes as if she was trying to reenact what Luca would have done. If Milo had been behind him like Luca had said, he would have heard someone coming behind him, taking his brother and he definitely would have seen him running away with a 9-year-old boy.

Fred was stood behind Daphne and she could hear him breathing.

She got to her feet, turned to Fred and said very bluntly, ‘The kid was lying.’

‘Huh?’ Fred asked.

‘I can hear you breathing behind me. Luca would have for sure heard someone taking Milo and I can’t believe that with all this clear space around them, Luca didn’t see anyone running away with his brother, near them before he tied his shoes up. And the fact that the police didn’t look further into this was just crappy police work.’

Fred smirked, ‘You wanna be the one to tell Fischer that?’

Daphne smiled, ‘I’m serious. Look around Freddie, think that it was the middle of Summer when this happened. Nothing was stopping Luca from seeing anyone.’

‘What are you thinking?’ Fred asked.

‘I don’t think anyone else was involved.’


	12. Chapter 12

Jason Wheeler hung his coat up on the coat stand in the hallway. Whatever was cooking smelled amazing.

‘Honey I’m home.’ He called cheerfully.

‘In here!’ A voice said from the kitchen.

Wheeler walked through the warm house towards the kitchen. He past the living room and heard the TV playing Spongebob Squarepants.

When he got into the kitchen, it was a mess. His wife was sat at the table with his 5-year-old daughter Ellie, and their 2-year-old son Toby in the highchair, his face covered in food.

His wife sat between them, spoon-feeding Toby but he would sometimes push the spoon away or snatch the food off the spoon and rub it over his face.

Amelia, his wife had a plate in front of her. It had some vegetables and lasagne on it, the smell and the sight of the food made Wheeler’s stomach growl.

‘Daddy!’ Ellie exclaimed.

Wheeler smiled, ‘Ellie!’ He exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air, ‘Toby!’

And the boy squealed excitedly.

‘Hello sweetie.’ Amelia said, ‘I’ll get your dinner.’ And she stood up from the table. Wheeler glanced at her belly, in four months they would have another one around the table with them.

‘I’ll get it.’ Wheeler said, and he grabbed the oven gloves and opened the oven, ‘It smells amazing.’

‘Thanks, babe.’ Amelia replied with a smile. ‘How was work?’

‘Yeah dad, how was work?’ Ellie asked. She was going through a stage of copying everything her mother said, so Amelia had to be careful. Not that she used a lot of bad language anyway, but she didn’t want Ellie to say the wrong things at school.

Wheeler smiled, ‘I’ll tell you later.’

Amelia’s smile faltered a little bit, ‘Ok.’ And she nodded.

‘Why?’ Ellie asked.

‘Because it is very very boring grown-up stuff.’ Wheeler replied. Ellie rolled her eyes and returned to her spaghetti, suddenly laughing wildly at Toby who had spaghetti hanging out of his mouth, over his face and his hands.

‘I think someone needs a bath.’ Amelia laughed.

After dinner, Wheeler cleared everything away and tidied up a bit whilst Amelia was upstairs giving the kids their bath.

Wheeler could hear the water splashing, Ellie laughing and Toby squealing. He realised how lucky he was to have a family of his own. And a wife who loved him.

After Ellie was born, he was worried that Amelia would struggle going back to work, but she enjoyed being home with their baby. And after they worked out their finances, they figured out that Amelia didn’t really need to work, Wheeler was earning enough to support the three of them. But then Toby came along, and then two years later Amelia is pregnant again.

Amelia Wheeler is a very talented craftswoman, and so when Ellie was at school and Toby was down for him nap, she would make little things and sell them online. Her biggest hits were stuffed toys made out of Ellie’s old baby clothes and old bedsheets, handmade rattles and ‘baby’s 1st’ photo albums.

Once the kitchen was cleaned, Wheeler went into the living room. Spongebob Squarepants was still playing so Wheeler grabbed the remote. He held it in his hand, not changing the channel. He simply stared at the TV.

A few minutes later, Amelia came down water splashed over her shirt but she explained that she was going to put her pyjamas on soon anyway. ‘How was work?’ She asked, a little bit concerned.

‘We found a link.’ Wheeler began, ‘Between the murder cases and the murder of Milo Pablo.’

Amelia’s eyes widened, ‘Milo Pablo?’ She asked.

Wheeler nodded.

‘Oh my gosh, I was only a few years old when happened.’ Amelia gasped, realising how much time had gone by since Milo Pablo’s death.

‘So was I.’ Wheeler added.

‘How are the new detectives?’ Amelia asked.

‘Great.’ Wheeler replied.

‘Really? You don’t sound too excited.’ Amelia said.

‘They have brought this case forward quicker than anyone has in the last 34 years. Not even Fischer could figure it out.’

‘That’s a good thing though.’ Amelia said.

‘I know, but it’s making me think, is someone hiding something?’

***

Daphne and Fred stopped by the convenience store on their way home and purchased a bottle of whisky; a big one.

Fred and Daphne weren’t really in the mood to eat anything, but they knew they couldn’t drink and not eat, so Fred boiled some water and decided to make spaghetti again.

Daphne went into the bedroom and changed into her pyjamas. She checked her phone and found a message from her sister, ‘Hi sis, hope it’s all going ok! We miss you!’ Attached to the message was a photo of Daphne’s sister Thalia and her niece Emily. They were both smiling widely, Emily was sat on her mother’s lap and Daphne could see a trail of drool down Emily’s chin and stains on her clothes.

She smiled at the photo and quickly replied with, ‘Miss you too.’

She wasn’t sentimental like her sister, sometimes Daphne would reply to her messages to keep her sister happy, but other times she wouldn’t reply. If Daphne was not a detective, she probably wouldn’t have a phone, she hardly used it and the only people she contacted outside of work was her mother, sister and Fred.

She returned to the kitchen and sat at the table whilst Fred was making dinner. But seconds after sitting down she got back up again and went to the cupboard, took out two glasses and then she opened the whisky and poured some in each glass for herself and Fred.

‘Thanks.’ Fred smiled, and they sat at the table together whilst Fred waited for the water to be boiling enough before he could put the spaghetti in.

When the whisky touched their lips, they realised just how much they desired the drink, it was like a relief after a long day.

Daphne sighed.

‘You can’t be wrong about it Daph, we’ve been over it since we left the park.’ Fred spoke.

‘I know. I know it’s the only thing that makes sense, but I don’t want to believe it.’ Daphne replied.

‘Neither do I. But before we can tell anyone, we need to make sure we have everything we need to prove it. We don’t even know where Luca Pablo is.’

Daphne ran her hand through her hair, ‘I know.’

Fred reached across the table for her hand, ‘Your instincts were right this time.’ He smiled.

Daphne smiled, she knew she was right this time. It was Fred who had suggested what could have happened and then Daphne tried to create a scenario in her head.

It came together.

‘Let’s not think about this now, let’s just forget about work for tonight. Ok?’

Daphne smiled, ‘Ok.’ And she realised Fred was still holding her hand. Was it Déjà vu, or did this happen last night too?

But Fred didn’t let go this time, ‘It’ll be fine.’ He smiled.

They sat like that for a few minutes, until Fred heard the bubbling of the water and got up to put the spaghetti in the pan.

It was the same as last nights, but Daphne didn’t complain, she loved it.

This time they ate in the kitchen before they went into the living room to watch the TV; taking the bottle of whisky with them.

They flipped through the channels, but nothing was interesting on so they watched the Simpson’s again.

They sat so close to each other that one would think they were stuck together.

Daphne cradled her whisky glass in her hand on her lap. Fred had his glass in one hand resting on his knee and his free hand on his other leg.

Daphne felt something brushing her right hand, so her eyes rolled away from the TV and she saw the backs of Fred’s fingers brushing lightly against her hand.

She felt a gently tingle run through her body. But when she looked up and saw that was staring right at her, she felt the goosebumps spread through her body, and she realised how close they were.

She stared into ocean his blue eyes for what felt like the longest time. Her eyes looked down at his lips before quickly looking back to his eyes.

She wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol taking responsibility, or if maybe she wanted to and the alcohol gave her a boost, but she and Fred were inches apart and then he pressed his lips to hers.

They were soft and she could taste the alcohol on his breath, but it wasn’t strong.

She felt his hand at the back of her head, sliding underneath her hair as if he was trying to pull her closer.

Suddenly she realised what was happened and quickly pulled away, blushing heavily. She didn’t know how Fred had managed to put his whisky glass on the table during their kiss without her noticing.

‘I’m sorry.’ He said quickly.

‘Don’t be.’ Daphne quickly flashed a smile before she finished the rest of her whisky, then she decided to go to bed.

She took her glass into the kitchen, lucky that she didn’t drop it because her hands were shaking, then she went to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

She tried to stop herself from smiling into the bathroom mirror as she brushed her teeth. She had realised that she and Fred probably shouldn’t have kissed. They both had been drinking so how were they to know if it was what they wanted or if it was the alcohol doing all the work.

And also because she and Fred were so close, she didn’t want anything to ruin their friendship.

She spat out her toothpaste and stared at herself one last time in the mirror before she turned the light off and went to the bedroom.

Fred came out of the bedroom as Daphne walked from the bathroom. He had his pyjama’s in his hands and smiled as he pasted Daphne, who returned the smile and went quickly into the bedroom.

Daphne quickly checked her phone and saw another message from her sister, ‘How is it going with you and Fred?’ An eye-wink emoji followed the question and Daphne rolled her eyes replying with, ‘We’re working.’

Her phone was on silent and she put it on the bedside cabinet.

A few minutes later Fred came into the bedroom. Daphne climbed into her own bed and Fred into his.

Daphne turned the light off, ‘Night.’

‘Night, Daphne.’

She wasn’t sure if Fred had gone to sleep.

But Daphne closed her eyes only to open them again seconds later and staring up into the darkness.

She asked herself why she and Fred had kissed. Why she didn’t stop him when he came closer to her? Maybe because she didn’t want him to stop?

But this was not the first time Fred and Daphne had kissed. During their last year of college, she and Fred had gotten quite drunk at her apartment and ended up kissing and one thing followed another and they ended up in bed together.

The next morning was awkward and they told each other that it wouldn’t happen again, however, the week that followed was just as awkward. Daphne and Fred tried to focus on their college work, but each time they got too close they realised that what they had done wasn’t going to go away. And Daphne decided that they needed to try to forget what had happened and focus on their college work.

Neither of them wanted the friendship to be ruined by one drunk night, and eventually, the night was forgotten and never mentioned again.

As she laid in the bed, Fred lying in the other bed on the other side of the room, she thought about what work would be like tomorrow. What tomorrow morning would be like too.

She didn’t want things between them to be so awkward like the last time.

But she had been realising over the last few days that she had feelings for Fred, even if she didn’t fully understand them, she knew that he gave her goosebumps, he made her smile and he made her heart beat faster when he was close to her.

She was lucky to have him as her partner, he was one of the smartest detectives at the NYPD. He was switched on and could easily pick up if someone was lying and hiding something. He was also fast and strong.

But Daphne knew was lucky to have him as her best friend. He was always there when she needed him, he was loyal and he knew her better than anyone else did. They were both there for each other, and Daphne knew everything about him. She knew he liked his coffee strong, just a tiny splash of milk and two sugars. He didn’t like tea. Neither did she.

She knew he had always wanted to be a detective when he was a kid, thanks to the many hours of police movies he used to watch when he was a kid.

She loved him, and she knew that he loved her too.

Her head rolled to his side of the room and she watched him. With the moonlight shining through the curtains, she could see he was lying on his back but couldn’t tell if his eyes were open or not.

She wanted to lie in bed with him and cuddle him like the night before. And she felt herself sliding out of the bed, but she stopped herself.

What if it was awkward? It probably wouldn’t be, but what if it was?

She was so frustrated with herself, she wanted to scream.

But instead, she climbed out of her bed and crept to Fred’s. He was awake and he looked up at her. She felt her cheeks warming. Before she could say anything, Fred pulled the bedsheets back and Daphne climbed in next to him.

He covered her with the bedsheets and wrapped his arms around her.

‘Are you ok?’ He asked.

‘Yeah, I’m ok.’ She replied.

Their faces were just inches apart and Daphne brought her hand up to his cheek, her thumb brushed against his skin and she felt his skin tingle.

This time who leant in and she caught his lips with hers.

Fred was a little bit surprised, but he began kissing her back.

Neither of them expected it to last as long as it did, it was probably less than a minute but it was longer than the one they had shared downstairs.

They pulled away suddenly. Neither of them saying anything, just staring at each other before they went back in and kissed again.

It was a little more heated than the last one.

Daphne felt her stomach twisting and she moaned a little when his tongue slid into her mouth and collided with her own.

She felt his hand in her hair and it caused her to moan again, and Fred gave a breathy chuckle.

Fred rolled onto his back and pulled Daphne on top of him, the kiss wasn’t broken by their movements.

Fred’s hands dropped to her waist and hers were now in his hair. This time Fred was moaning, as Daphne was lightly tugging on his hair.

Then she pulled away from the kiss. She stared down at Fred, looking deep into his eyes and she knew what she wanted. She went back in for another kiss.

She gasped when Fred rolled them over and was now on top of her, though she laughed as he did.

Fred pulled his lips away from hers and began tracing kisses down to her neck, while his hands slid under her pyjama t-shirt and roamed around her torso, slowly going higher and higher.

Daphne’s eyes widened when his hand came in contact with her breast, and Fred stopped for a moment, and he stopped kissing.

‘It’s ok.’ Daphne replied, ‘Go on.’

Fred brought continued kissing the spot on her neck and his hands continued to roam her body before Daphne began to pull off her pyjama top, leaving her breasts exposed before him.

He pulled his lips away from her neck and stared at her exposed chest, but Daphne laughed, ‘For God’s sake Freddie you’ve seen them before.’

Fred quickly laughed before bringing his lips back to hers again.

Daphne groaned when she felt his hand cupping one of her breasts. He pulled his lips away from hers once more and seconds later Daphne felt him kissing her other breast before taking the nipple in his mouth.

Feeling his tongue over her nipple, followed by the light nipping from his teeth, Daphne’s head sank further into the pillow as she moaned. He was gently squeezing her other breast as he worked on the other, before moving his mouth over to the other one.

He pulled his t-shirt off. Daphne was surprised to see that Fred was nicely toned, and more than he had been the last time they were like this. Sometimes he wore shirts that complimented his muscular body, now she knew that he had a well-kept body.

Fred trailed kisses from her breasts down to her stomach, and back up again. He threw the bedsheets off them after Daphne’s failed attempts to kick them off.

Daphne pushed down her pyjama bottoms before Fred pulled them off, and he trailed kisses down her body again, hooking his fingers around her panties and pulling them off and kissing her inner thighs.

Daphne gasped when she felt his lips between her legs, lightly kissing her there for a few seconds before his kisses became more fervent and he earned himself a moan when his tongue slid inside her.

‘Freddie!’ She gasped, her hands in his hair, tugging lightly and she felt him groaning against her, he mumbled something but she couldn’t tell if it was a groan or he had attempted to say something whilst his tongue worked.

Much to Daphne’s dismay, Fred pulled his lips away from her. And she watched as he pulled his pyjama bottoms off, kicking them to the floor where her pyjamas were.

And then he pulled his boxers down, Daphne’s eyes widened when she saw it. But Fred chuckled and Daphne gave a small laugh. Fred picked up a little nervousness in her laugh, but Daphne reassured him it was ok.

He brought his lips down to hers again, sliding a hand into her hair as he slowly slid inside her.

Daphne gasped when she felt him, and Fred pulled his lips away from hers, ‘You ok?’ He asked.

Daphne nodded, ‘Yes…keep going.’

He continued sliding until he was fully inside her, earning moans from her as he kissed her neck.


End file.
